"Robert Moncton came to the Hall at this time to receive the rents of the estate for Sir Alexander—for he was his man of business. He saw the child, and perceived that it was a poor, fragile, puling thing; the thought entered his wicked heart, that if this weakly scion of the old family tree were removed, his son would be heir to the title and lands of Moncton.
"I don't know what argument he made use of to win Rachel to his purpose. I was living with him at the time as his housekeeper; for the wife he had married was a poor, feeble-minded creature—the mere puppet of his imperious will, and a very indifferent manager. But she loved him, and at that period he was a very handsome man, and had the art of hiding his tyrannical temper, by assuming before strangers a pleasing, dignified manner, which imposed on every person who was not acquainted with the secrets of the domestic prison-house.
"Rachel consented to make away with the child; but on the very night she had set apart for the perpetration of the deed, God smote her own lovely boy upon the breast, and the tears of the distracted mother awoke in her mind a consciousness of the terrible sin she had premeditated.
"To hearts like Robert Moncton's and mine this circumstance would not have deterred us from our purpose; but Rachel was not like us, hardened in guilt or bad, and unknown to us both she reared the young heir of Moncton as her own.
"It was strange that neither of us suspected the fact.
"I might have known, from the natural antipathy I felt for the child, that he was not of my flesh and blood; but God hid it from me, till Rachel informed me on her death-bed of the deception she had practised.
"It was an important secret, and I determined to make use of it to extort money from Robert Moncton, when the child should be old enough to attract his attention. I owed him a long grudge, and this gave me power to render him restless and miserable. Thus I suffered George Moncton to live, to obtain a two-fold object—the gratification of Avarice and Revenge.
"In spite of neglect and harsh treatment, which were inseparable from the deep-rooted hatred I bore him on his parents' account, the hand of Heaven was extended over the injured child. He out-grew the feeble delicacy of his infancy, and when he had attained his fourth year, was a beautiful and intelligent boy.
"His father, as if compelled by powerful natural instinct, lavished upon him the most abundant marks of favour. Lady Moncton's love was that of a doting mother, which increased up to the period of her death.
"The death of Lady Moncton, and that of Roger Mornington, followed quickly upon each other, and all my old hopes revived, when Sir Alexander renewed his attentions to my daughter. But vain are the expectations of the wicked. Bitter experience has taught me (though it took me a long life to learn that lesson) that man cannot contend with God; and my beautiful Rachel died in her prime, just when my fondest expectations seemed on the point of realization.