and I was obliged to return home with the babe, which, by-the-by,
continued to roar lustily all the way, and so attracted public
attention to me (its presumptive mother) that I wept as bitterly as
the child itself, and was heartily sorry that I had undertaken any
such mission.

Next day I set out again in good time, but now a new difficulty
awaited me. The good Sister who received me informed me that only
those who were baptized and received into the Catholic Faith were
eligible for admission. On hearing this I burst into tears; I told
her my story, that the child was not mine, but that I was
commissioned by its father to deliver it to her, and I besought her
so earnestly to take it from me that she very considerately did so,
and on my handing her the necessary fee, she undertook to have it
regularly baptized and admitted.

In the evening I called to see the mother; she was lying on a
miserable couch in a low lodging-house in the Quebec suburbs, yet
she had about her the air of a lady, and on her finger glittered a
ring set with brilliants. She wept when I told her how her child was
disposed of, but said that she had no other alternative, as if her
father, who was a lawyer of eminence, had any idea of her predicament,
he would cast her off in shame; that when she first discovered her
condition she persuaded her paramour to make a formal proposal for
her hand, but her father was enraged beyond measure, and threatened
her so terribly that she, for a time at least, put away all thoughts
of Ferguson from her mind, and had not quite decided how to act,
when the occurrence took place which led to the visit aforementioned,
and caused the necessity for my attendance. Miss L---- had barely
time to call in a carriage at Ferguson's office, and apprise him of