She did emerge from her secrecy far enough to say to Mrs. Barkley that she was to receive "an honorarium" for the support of the little darling. "Of course I won't spend a cent of it on myself," she added, simply.
"Is it a child of shame?" said Mrs. Barkley, sternly.
Miss Lydia's shocked face and upraised, protesting hands, answered her: "My baby's parents were married persons! After they—passed on, a friend of theirs intrusted the child to me."
"When did they die?"
Miss Lydia reflected. "I didn't ask the date."
"Well, considering the child's age, the mother's death couldn't have been very long ago," Mrs. Barkley said, dryly.
And Miss Lydia said, in a surprised way, as if it had just occurred to her: "Why, no, of course not! It was an accident," she added.
"For the mother?"
"For both parents," said Miss Sampson, firmly. And that was all Old Chester got out of her.
"Well," said Mrs. Drayton, "I am always charitable, but uncharitable persons might wonder. . . . It was last May, you know, that that Rives man deserted her at the altar."