“Where is Ida?” asked Jack, anxiously.
“She is safe,” said Peg, sententiously.
“You won't tell me where she is?”
“No. Why should I? I am indebted to you, I suppose, for this arrest. She shall be kept out of your way as long as it is in my power to do so.”
Jack's countenance fell.
“At least you will tell me whether she is well?”
“I shall answer no questions whatever,” said Mrs. Hardwick.
“Then I will find her,” he said, gaining courage. “She is somewhere in the city, and sooner or later I shall find her.”
Peg was not one to betray her feelings, but this arrest was a great disappointment to her. Apart from the consequences which might result from it, it would prevent her meeting with John Somerville, and obtaining from him the thousand dollars of which she had regarded herself certain. Yet even from her prison-cell she might hold over him in terrorem the threat of making known to Ida's mother the secret of her child's existence. All was not lost. She walked quietly to the carriage in waiting, while her companions, in an ecstasy of terror, seemed to have lost the power of locomotion, and had to be supported on either side.