world--it was absolutely necessary, for the present, that he should
conceal and disown. It had happened that Sarah's husband died of his own
excesses a few weeks before the birth of Templeton's child, she having
herself just recovered from her confinement; Sarah was therefore free
forever from her husband's vigilance and control. To her care the
destined heiress was committed, and her own child put out to nurse. And
this was the woman and this the child who had excited so much benevolent
curiosity in the breasts of the worthy clergyman and the three old maids
of C-----.* Alarmed at Sarah's account of the scrutiny of the parson, and
at his own rencontre with that hawk-eyed pastor, Templeton lost no time
in changing the abode of the nurse; and to her new residence had the
banker bent his way, with rod and angle, on that evening which witnessed
his adventure with Luke Darvil.** When Mr. Templeton first met Alice, his
own child was only about thirteen or fourteen months old,--but little
older than Alice's. If the beauty of Mrs. Leslie's _protege_ first
excited his coarser nature, her maternal tenderness, her anxious care for
her little one, struck a congenial chord in the father's heart. It
connected him with her by a mute and unceasing sympathy. Templeton had
felt so deeply the alarm and pain of illicit love, he had been (as he
profanely believed) saved from the brink of public shame by so signal an
interference of grace, that he resolved no more to hazard his good name
and his peace of mind upon such perilous rocks. The dearest desire at
his heart was to have his daughter under his roof,--to fondle, to play
with her, to watch her growth, to win her affection. This, at present,
seemed impossible. But if he were to marry,--marry a widow, to whom he
might confide all, or a portion, of the truth; if that child could be
passed off as hers--ah, that was the best plan! And Templeton wanted a
wife! Years were creeping on him, and the day would come when a wife
would be useful as a nurse. But Alice was supposed to be a widow; and
Alice was so meek, so docile, so motherly. If she could be induced to