took George home, and ever afterwards treated him as if he also had been
their own child. But it was too late; had it happened a few weeks earlier,
my own precious babe might have been saved to me."

"You cannot know that, mother; we all die when our time comes."

"His time had not come. The miserable wretch to whom George trusted the
boy, exposed him among strangers, to save herself trouble, and to obtain
twenty dollars at as cheap a rate as possible----"

"Hold!" I interrupted. "In the name of Heaven, my good woman, in what year
did this occur?"

Marble looked at me in astonishment, though he clearly had glimpses of the
object of my question.

"It was in the month of June, 17--. For thirty long, long years, I
supposed my child had actually died; and then the mere force of conscience
told me the truth. The wretched woman could not carry the secret with her
into the grave, and she sent for me to hear the sad revelation."

"Which was to say that she left the child in a basket, on a tombstone,
in a marble-worker's yard, in town; in the yard of a man whose name was
Durfee?" I said, as rapidly as I could speak.

"She did, indeed! though it is a marvel to me that a stranger should know
this. What will be God's pleasure next?"

Marble groaned. He hid his face in his hands, while the poor woman looked
from one of us to the other, in bewildered expectation of what was to