for my pains. And so I was, for when I came to think of it the man
was a stranger to me, and I had never asked him his name. It was
just his handsome face and the way he had with him that had thrown
me off my guard as it were; so I stood and looked silly enough, I
suppose, while Priscilla fussed about with the baby, for it had
wakened and was crying. Well!"--and Jocelyn heaved a short sigh--
"That's about all! We never saw the man again, and the child was
never claimed; but every six months I received a couple of bank-
notes in an envelope bearing a different postmark each time, with
the words: 'For Innocent' written inside--"

She uttered a quick, almost terrified exclamation, and drew her
hand away from his.

"Every six months for a steady twelve years on end," he went on,--
"then the money suddenly stopped. Now you understand, don't you?
YOU were the babe that was left with me that stormy night; and
you've been with me ever since. But you're not MY child. I don't
know whose child you are!"

He stopped, looking at her.

She had risen from her seat beside him and was standing up. She
was trembling violently, and her face seemed changed from the
round and mobile softness of youth to the worn pallor and thinness
of age. Her eyes were luminous with a hard and feverish
brilliancy.

"You--you don't know whose child I am!" she repeated,--"I am not
yours--and you don't know--you don't know who I belong to! Oh, it