the most human. But I am not going to thank you as I ought to do, but to ask of you a last and exceeding favour. Protect my child till he grows up,—you have often said you loved him,—you are childless yourself,—and a morsel of bread and a shelter for the night which is all I ask of you to give him, will not impoverish more legitimate claimants!"
Poor Mrs. Margery fairly sobbing, vowed she would be a mother to the child, and that she would endeavour to rear him honestly, though a public house was not, she confessed, the best place for good examples!
"Take him!" cried the mother hoarsely, as her voice, failing her strength, rattled indistinctly, and almost died within her. "Take him,—rear him as you will, as you can!—any example, any roof better than—" Here the words were inaudible.—"And oh! may it be a curse, and a! Give me the medicine, I am dying."
The hostess, alarmed, hastened to comply, but before she returned to the bedside the sufferer was insensible,—nor did she again recover speech
