should expect a mother who receives back her own offspring, saved from a
fate too horrible even to contemplate, her own child who had gone from
her mute and comes back to her speaking, I say we should think it
natural in such a mother to seize this child, and, in the ecstasy of her
love and joy, half suffocate it with her kisses and caresses. Not so
here. I could see no glad tear in the lady's eye, no smile of welcome on
her face. Her hands were snugly stowed away in a costly little muff, and
she did not think it necessary to extend them to her child. She breathed
a cold, lifeless kiss upon the boy's pale forehead, and the tiny hand of
the child caressed the fur trimming on her jacket, just as he had done
with the astrachan lapel of my coat. What a strange behaviour in mother
and child after such a reunion!

I had watched this family scene out of a strange curiosity, which was
wholly involuntary. Presently I recollected the situation, and turned to
leave the perron. Perhaps, if I had saved some honest cockney's son from
a like danger, I should not have avoided him, but, with a friendly
pressure of the hand, expressed my pleasure at having been able to be of
service to him. Then we should have parted good friends. But to
introduce myself to an American nabob as the rescuer of his child was
impossible! Why, the man was capable of offering me a remuneration!

No, I would have nothing to do with aristocrats like these. They have
their child; it is safe; and so good-bye to them!

However, as I turned to leave, I was surprised to hear some one
pronounce my name, and, to my astonishment, I found that it was Mr.
Dumany. He still held the child on his arm, and, coming toward me, he
said in French, "Oh, sir! you do not mean to run away from us, surely?"