“You do not intend to take your child with you?” repeated the physician, astonished, while he searched the downcast face before him with a suspicious look.
“No; and that was what I wished to consult with you about,” replied Mrs. Marston, shifting uneasily for an instant beneath his glance.
Then she lifted her head proudly and met his eyes with calm hauteur.
“You wish to leave it out to nurse, perhaps, and desire me to suggest some proper person,” observed Dr. Turner, trying to explain her conduct thus.
“No,” answered the lady, coldly. “I wished to ask if you could recommend some institution in the city where I could put her, and where she would receive proper care.”
Dr. Turner regarded the woman with amazement.
“Institution, madame! What kind of an institution?” he asked, aghast.
“Some public institution, or some home for homeless children,” she answered, not a muscle of her beautiful face moving.
“I really do not comprehend you,” the physician said, almost ready to believe that he was in the presence of a lunatic, for surely no mother in her right mind could think of abandoning her child in such a heartless way.
“Indeed, I thought I made an explicit statement,” remarked Mrs. Marston, haughtily. “However the child is not to go with me. There are reasons—imperative reasons—that compel me to dispose of her——”