The Changeling. Walter Besant
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Walter Besant
The Changeling
Published by Good Press, 2021
EAN 4057664575104
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I. WAS IT SUBSTITUTION?
CHAPTER II. THE ONLY WITNESS GONE.
CHAPTER III. THE THREE COUSINS.
CHAPTER IV. THE CONSULTING-ROOM.
CHAPTER VII. THE MASTER OF THE SITUATION.
CHAPTER X. COUSIN ALFRED'S SECRET.
CHAPTER XI. THE DOCTOR'S DINNER.
CHAPTER XII. THE OTHER CHILD OF DESERTION.
CHAPTER XIII. A MIDNIGHT WALK.
CHAPTER XV. TWO JUMPS AND A CONCLUSION.
CHAPTER XVII. THE SECOND BLOW.
CHAPTER XVIII. A GRACIOUS LADY.
CHAPTER XIX. A CABINET COUNCIL.
CHAPTER XX. JOHN HAVERIL CLEARS UP THINGS.
CHAPTER XXI. "TO BE OFF WITH THE OLD LOVE."
CHAPTER XXIII. ONE MORE ATTEMPT.
CHAPTER XXV. THE FIRST MOTHER.
CHAPTER XXVI. THE SECOND MOTHER.
CHAPTER THE LAST. FORGIVENESS.
CHAPTER I.
WAS IT SUBSTITUTION?
"Pray be seated, madam." The doctor offered his visitor a chair. Then he closed the door, with perhaps a more marked manner than one generally displays in this simple operation. "I am happy to inform you," he began, "that the arrangements—the arrangements," he repeated with meaning, "are now completed."
The lady was quite young—not more than twenty-two or so—a handsome woman, a woman of distinction. Her face was full of sadness; her eyes were full of trouble; her lips trembled; her fingers nervously clutched the arms of the chair. When the doctor mentioned the arrangements, her cheek flushed and then paled. In a word, she betrayed every external sign of terror, sorrow, and anxiety.
"And when can I leave this place?"
"This day: as soon as you please."
"The woman made no objections?"
"None. You can have the child."
"I have told you my reasons for wishing to adopt this child"—he had never asked her reasons, yet at every interview she repeated them: "my own boy is dead. He is dead." There was a world of trouble in the repetition of the word.
The doctor bowed coldly. "Your reasons, madam," he said, "are sufficient for yourself. I have followed your instructions without asking for your reasons. That is to say, I have found the kind of child you want: light hair and blue eyes, apparently sound and healthy; at all events, the child of a sound and healthy mother. As for your reasons, I do not inquire."
"I thought you might like——"
"They are nothing to do with me. My business has been to find a child, and to arrange for your adoption of it. I have therefore, as I told you, arranged with a poor woman who is willing to part with her child."
"On my conditions?"
"Absolutely. That is—she will never see the child again; she will not ask who takes the child, or where it is taken, or in what position of life it will be brought up. She accepts your assurance that the child will be cared for, and treated kindly. She fully consents."
"Poor creature!"
"You will give her fifty pounds, and that single payment will terminate the whole business."
"Terminate the whole business? Oh, it will begin the whole business!"
"There are many reasons for adoption," the doctor continued, returning to the point with which he had no concern. "I have read in books of substituting a child—introducing a child—for the sake of keeping a title, or an estate, or a family."
The lady answered as if she had not heard this remark. "The mother consents to sell her child! Poor creature!"
"She accepts your conditions. I have told you so. Go your way—she goes hers."
The lady reflected for a moment. "Tell me," she said,—"you are a man of science,—in such an adoption——"
"Or, perhaps, such a substitution," interrupted the doctor.
"Is there not danger of inherited vice, or disease?"
"Certainly there is. It is a danger which