“I have come to a sudden but wise conclusion, mother. I know that the child can expect no mercy from Camille’s cruel heart. I must send her from me for her own good.”
“But where, Norman?”
“I will tell you, mother. In the wreck with me—indeed, the only person saved with Sweetheart and myself—was a man, a commercial traveler, named George Hinton. He took a strange fancy to my little protégée, and begged to have her if her friends were not discovered. He was a married man with a small family—two boys, and a girl of seven who longed for a sister.”
“A good man, Norman?” anxiously.
“Rough, perhaps, but with a good heart, I am sure. He gave me his address. His home is in a little Virginia town on the line of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. Mother, what if you were to take Sweetheart to him? Then you could satisfy yourself as to whether the Hintons would be proper people with whom to leave the child. I would make them an allowance for her support and education, of course. I should like it if you could go very soon.”
“To-morrow?”
“Yes, if possible. We must go away from here for awhile, you know, dear mother. You remember it was Camille’s money with which we improved Verelands. Unless she decides to live here, the place must be rented out until sufficient money is realized to repay the debt. Dearest little mother, you know we are poor again, now. I shall have to work for us both.”
“There is my little income. It is more than enough for me. All I can spare shall go to help the Hintons if they take Sweetheart,” she said, but her voice was hoarse with tears. How could she leave the dear old home, and how could her son sit there and talk of it with that calm, white face? It was cruel! He might have borne with Camille, if only for his mother’s sake.
Hard thoughts of her son came to her for the first time in her life, but she did not utter a single reproach. Perhaps it would all come right soon, and she could come back to Verelands.
“You will want to answer your wife’s letter,” she said, looking around for it; then she saw the fragments of the pink envelope strewing the floor. “Naughty Little Sweetheart, you have cut it up with your toy scissors!” she cried.