‘_What_ child? I did not know there was a child here.’ ‘You are the last to hear of it then,’ replied Lizzie bitterly. ‘The smallest lad on the plantation has discussed it before now. I mean the infant which Rosa has in her arms. It is _not_ mine! I hope you will believe me when I say so. But I have no means of proving the truth of what I say.’ ‘You surprise me beyond measure,’ said Captain Norris. ‘In what does the difficulty lie, and why cannot you appeal to the real parents to help you out of it?’ ‘Captain Norris, you must not question me too closely, lest I should betray a secret I have sworn to keep. Be satisfied with what I tell you. It was only yesterday my father gave me that child to nurse for him. He asked me to keep it through the night, and in the morning he would get a proper person to take charge of it. You have heard the sequel. By the morning, God had called him away, and I am left with this burden on my hands for ever!’ ‘But, Lizzie, forgive me if I do not follow you. What reason is there for your keeping the child? What interest had your father in it? Why should you not send it to the people he intended to entrust it to?’ ‘Perhaps I might have done so if this suspicion had not fallen upon me; but _now_, what would be the use of it? Absent or present, the child will be regarded as mine. I shall have to bear the stigma; I may as well have the satisfaction of knowing I have fulfilled my dead father’s wishes.’ ‘Do you know who are the parents of the child?’ Lizzie was silent. ‘I see that you do. Surely they will never permit you innocently to bear this awful shame?’ ‘Captain Norris, when my father first showed me that child, he extracted a solemn oath from me never to reveal anything I knew or might guess concerning it. It is useless your questioning me. My tongue is tied, and whatever my silence may cost me, I am bound to endure.’ ‘But surely your lover, De Courcelles, does not believe this slanderous lie about you, Lizzie? _He_ will stand up in your defence, whatever the world may say, and fight it with you?’ ‘Oh, don’t talk of him! Don’t mention his name!’ cried Lizzie, with a sudden burst of grief. ‘He _does_ believe it, Captain Norris, and he has cast me off. We are parted for ever. Our engagement is at an end.’ ‘The cur!’ exclaimed Norris contemptuously. ‘You shall not call him so! What else could he do?’ rejoined Lizzie hastily. ‘What would _you_ do, if the woman you had engaged yourself to marry, proved to be a wanton? You would say she was not fit to be your wife, and you would be right. Until this stigma is lifted off me, I am not fit to become the wife of any honest man.’ ‘But it does not rest upon you, in _my_ estimation,’ replied her companion. ‘I do not believe it; no one should ever make me do so except yourself. I would take your word against that of a thousand witnesses, Lizzie.’