"Not at all. I have everything planned in my mind. Now I am ready to
go out. First, to the telegraph office--it is open all night here--to
dispatch a telegram to the London lawyers to send a representative
down immediately, who, when he comes, will take the affair out of our
hands, I expect. Afterward to the house of the woman's friends; she
must accompany us to your house, and we will take the child away
before daylight. Then we will call in a doctor, and nothing need reach
Rachel's ears. Don't take it to heart, Cohen; you have troubles enough
of your own. The news you give me of Rachel is the best of news. Joy
and sorrow, Cohen--how close they are together!"
In the telegraph office Mr. Moss wrote a long message to Mr. Gordon's
lawyers, impressing upon them the necessity of sending a
representative without delay to take charge of the body, and to attend
to the funeral arrangements.
"Between ourselves, Cohen," he said as they walked to the house of the
woman's friends, "the lawyers will be rather glad of the news than
otherwise; and so will Mr. Gordon when it reaches him. It clears the
way for him, in a manner of speaking. I am not sure whether I made the
matter clear to you, but there is no doubt whatever that, so far as
Mr. Gordon is concerned, the child was an encumbrance--to say nothing
of the expense, which perhaps he would not have minded, being almost a
millionaire. But still, as it has turned out, he has got rid of a
difficulty, and he will not be sorry when he hears of it."
"And the mother," said Aaron--"how will she take it?"
"That is another matter, and I will not pretend to say. There are
mothers and mothers, and fathers and fathers. We know, Cohen, what we
think of our own children, but there are people in the world with
different ideas from ours. The mother of this little one will feel
grieved at first, no doubt, but she will soon get over it. Then,
perhaps, her husband will not tell her. Here we are at the woman's
house."
They halted before a small cottage, evidently inhabited by people in
humble circumstances. Before he aroused the inmates Mr. Moss said:
"I shall keep your name out of the affair, Cohen, but to a certain
extent the woman must be taken into our confidence. Secrecy will be
imposed upon her, and she will be paid for it. Remain in the
background; I will speak to her alone."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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