“Quick! quick! Mrs. Jeckyl!” now broke in Mrs. Dainty. “Oh, save my child! She will die! Break this terrible sleep!”
“I will do it only on one condition,” said the woman.
“Name it,” replied Mr. Dainty.
“I am now in the hands of an officer?”
“You are; and arrested on the serious charge of child-stealing.”
“The condition is this: that I be permitted to leave your house, and that no effort be made to arrest me after my departure.”
“Make no conditions with her,” spoke out Mr. Fleetwood.
“As you like,” answered the woman, coldly.
“I am not sure that I can make conditions now,” said Mr. Dainty. “You are already in the hands of the law.”
“Then I will not touch your child. She may sleep until the day of doom, for me! And she will sleep until I choose to awaken her.”