“‘The Doctor was making money too fast, and there was a very suspicious mortality among the little girls. It reappeared as the “House of the Good Samaritan,” at a little village in Westchester County. The old Doctor has gone either to his reward, or punishment. Probably, the latter.
“‘But the sly hypocrite who sported a D. D., as well as a medical title, left the Westchester property to a buxom grass widow, who long officiated as his matron.
“‘This woman is now forty years old—well-to-do—and is married to a thrifty young farmer—a man who is not particular as to how she earned the handsome property which they enjoy.’
“Mrs. Willoughby was softly sobbing when he finished.
“‘By the lavish use of money and a compact of immunity, she agreed to privately examine the books and records. Of course she has not got them. “It is a friend—and so on.” We did not dare to force her. For, she is a very sly bird.
“‘She was only twenty-two when she eased the good Doctor’s lonely hours, and she is a remarkably cool hand at the game of life.’
“The old man sighed, as he said, ‘It appears that the enthusiastic childless woman, who first adopted the child, died in two years after your babe was taken away from the “private Orphan Asylum,” and, as her young husband remarried in a year, he brought the pretty child back and left her again on McLloyd’s hands—with a handsome present.
“‘The girl was a beautiful three-year-old fairy, and the “matron” remembers her especially. But, McLloyd, always anxious for profit, gave her to the first decent applicants, a respectable childless couple, from Western New York.
“‘Under the name of “Alva Whiting”—full orphan—she was sent away for the second time.
“‘I must find her! You must advertise!’ cried Madame.