had passed since I left her. She had not even stirred the hand
from which, at her request, I had myself drawn her engagement
ring. I doubt even if her lids had shut once over her strained and
wide-staring eyes. It was as if she were laid out for her grave--"

"Madam!"

The harsh tone recalled her to herself. She took back the picture
he was holding towards her and was hardly surprised when he said:

"Parents must learn to endure bitterness. I have not been exempt
myself from such. Your child will not die. You have years of
mutual companionship before you, while I have nothing. And now let
us end this interview so painful to both. You have said--"

"No," she broke in with sudden vehemence, all the more startling
from the restraint in which she had--held herself up to this
moment, "I have not said--I have not begun to say what seethes
like a consuming fire in my breast. Judge Ostrander, I do not know
what has estranged you from Oliver. It must be something serious;-
-for you are both good men. But whatever it is, of this I am
certain: you would not wilfully deliver an innocent child like
mine to a wretched fate which a well-directed effort might avert.
I spoke of a miracle--Will you not listen, judge? I am not wild; I
am not unconscious of presumption. I am only in earnest, in deadly
earnest. A miracle is possible. The gulf between these two may yet
be spanned. I see a way--"

What change was this to which she had suddenly become witness? The
face which had not lost all its underlying benignancy even when it