CHAPTER V.

The Denunciation.


For a short space, Mrs. Sheppard remained dissolved in tears. She then
dried her eyes, and laying her child gently upon the floor, knelt down
beside him. "Open my heart, Father of Mercy!" she murmured, in a humble
tone, and with downcast looks, "and make me sensible of the error of my
ways. I have sinned deeply; but I have been sorely tried. Spare me yet a
little while, Father! not for my own sake, but for the sake of this poor
babe." Her utterance was here choked by sobs. "But if it is thy will to
take me from him," she continued, as soon as her emotion permitted
her,--"if he must be left an orphan amid strangers, implant, I beseech
thee, a mother's feelings in some other bosom, and raise up a friend,
who shall be to him what I would have been. Let him not bear the weight
of my punishment. Spare him!--pity me!"

With this she arose, and, taking up the infant, was about to proceed
down stairs, when she was alarmed by hearing the street-door opened, and
the sound of heavy footsteps entering the house.

"Halloa, widow!" shouted a rough voice from below, "where the devil are
you?"

Mrs. Sheppard returned no answer.