Then Tim found out that he must go, and he hurried away as if not a moment were to be lost, satisfied now, he said, that he had set himself right, while Jared and his wife stood together thoughtful and silent, the latter with tears in her eyes reproaching herself for not seeing through the mystery sooner. "For, O Jared!" she said, "if we had only had the poor little thing here, who can tell but its life might have been saved!" Volume 3, Chapter XXII. IN CHASE. "Five o'clock," said Harry Clayton, as the clerk came in to lay a couple of letters upon the table of his employer's private office. "How long have I been waiting this time?" "Better than an hour, sir," said the clerk. "What time do you close?" inquired Harry. "Five o'clock, sir," said the clerk; "he won't come here now." "S'pose not," said Harry. "I'll run down to Norwood. Hardly like going without an invite though, now. It won't seem like home," he muttered; and then he looked at the door, as much surprised as the clerk, for there stood the figure of poor Ellen. "That's the lady he went out with," said the clerk, in an undertone. "Has he not come back?" said Ellen, hoarsely. "Has not Mr Richard Pellet returned?" "No," said Harry, quietly. "I am waiting for him." "Who are you?" said his companion, abruptly. "Who am I?" said Harry, smiling good-humouredly. "My name is Clayton." "Her son?" she exclaimed. "The late Mrs Clayton's son, if that is what you mean; and Mr Pellet is my stepfather!" "I thought so; and where is she?" "In heaven, I trust," said Harry, reverently. "Dead! dead! And did he kill her, as he killed me, to marry some one else?" "Hush!" said Harry. "Perhaps you had better go," he said to the clerk, who was feasting, open-mouthed, upon the gossip banquet before him, but immediately left the room. "Where is he now?" she said, eagerly. "At Norwood, I expect," said Harry. "But, may I ask, who are you?" "Me!--me!" she exclaimed, passionately. "I am the woman who has been his slave through life--the woman he drove mad, and then kept hidden away that he might marry money. I'm mad, I know, but only sometimes-- only sometimes. And now--and now, he has robbed me of my child--his child!--no, no! my child--my own darling; and they try to cheat me; they say it is dead. But no, it could not die; it is well and happy, and," she continued, in an undertone, "I have half maddened him. I was here this morning and told him I would have my little one. I would not leave him, but he contrived to evade me." Then, catching Harry's wrist, she whispered a few words in his ear which made him turn pale with horror. "Nonsense! No, no! not so bad as that," he said, hoarsely. "Yes, yes, I fear it is. Take me with you now--at once."