Page:Mrs. Spring Fragrance - Far - 1912.djvu/119

 know you are trying to make my friends believe what you do not believe yourself! I know no more than its mother does about how the dear baby came here."

The Chinese merchant shrugged his shoulders insolently, and addressing the people again, asked them to judge for themselves. The child had been stolen. The teacher had pretended to aid in a search, yet it had been he and not she who had led the way to her room where it had been found.

Low mutterings were heard throughout the place; but after they Rad subsided, the white woman, looking around for a friendly face, was surprised and cheered to find many. Her spirits rose.

"How was I to know the child lay in my room?" she indignantly inquired. "I left the place in the early morning. It has been brought there since by someone unknown to me."

Wang Hom Hing laughed scornfully as he moved away, his revenge, as he thought, complete.

The father of the babe raised his son in his arms and passed him on to the mother who stood with arms outstretched. Clutching the child convulsively, she gazed with horror-struck eyes at the teacher.