Leonie shook her head.
"The bed is too hard," she answered. "Poor little thing, it will not hurt me to hold him."
"But you may take the disease yourself."
"One must always take that risk. I am willing if I can be of service to him now."
"God bless you!" whispered Liz. "I'll find a way to repay you for this if I am killed for it. I can never forget that you might have escaped and would not because of me and my poor child. You are free to go now if you wish."
"And leave you to face Ben Mauprat with that child? No! my liberty would be sweet to me, but I could not purchase it at such a cost to you."
Liz lifted her eyes blinded with tears. She kneeled and kissed the hand that supported Dick's head.
"You are an angel!" she whispered. "I had a daughter once, long years ago that might have been like you if she had lived, but she died years ago. That was the cause of Ben's deserting me and running away for all those years when I was little more than a girl myself. Perhaps it would have been better for me if he had never come back!"
A puzzled expression crossed Leonie's face.
"How long have you and Ben been married?" she asked, not forgetting in her excitement to speak sufficiently low not to disturb the sleeping child.