Presently she lifted her head.

"Where is the boy?" she asked in a hoarse whisper. "Is he alive?"

"And so you are interested in him, madame?"

"Interested? Why, he is with me night and day. Though he must be a
young man now, yet I always see him as the little babe I held to my
breast. If you know where he is, tell me. I must see him somehow,
though he must never know who I am."

"What about the girl, your daughter?" the man questioned. "She must be
a comfort to you now, and well takes the place of--of your son."

"Nothing can ever take his place," the woman vehemently declared. I
thought so once, fool that I was. But I know better now when it is too
late. Where is he? For God's sake, tell me!"

"And you have had no word from him?" the man asked.

"Nothing. I do not even know the woman's name who took him. I thought
I would never want to know."

"Then, madame, it is better for you to remain in ignorance. It would
do you no good now to learn anything about him. I, at any rate, shall
not enlighten you."

"You won't?"

"No, not now."