"Yes--I mean what you ought to have guessed at once--if you were not as stupid as an owl! I've told you I ran away with a man--I wouldn't marry him, though he asked me to--I should have been tied up for life, and I didn't want that--so we decided to separate. And he undertook to get rid of the baby--" "Me!" cried Innocent, wildly--"oh, dear God! It was me!" "Yes--it was you--but you needn't be tragic about it!" said Lady Blythe, calmly--"I think, on the whole, you were fortunately placed--and I was told where you were--" "You were told?--oh, you were told!--and you never came! And you--you are--my MOTHER!"--and overpowered by the shock of emotion, the girl sank back on her chair, and burying her head in her hands, sobbed bitterly. Lady Blythe looked at her in meditative silence. "What a tiresome creature!" she murmured, under her breath--"Quite undisciplined! No repose of manner--no style whatever! And apparently very little sense! I think it's a pity I came,--a mistaken sense of duty!" Aloud she said-- "I hope you're not going to cry very long! Won't you get it over? I thought you would be glad to know me--and I've come out of pure kindness to you, simply because I heard your old farmer was dead. Why Pierce Armitage should have brought you to him I never could imagine--except that once he was painting a picture in the neighbourhood and was rather taken with the history of this place--Briar Farm isn't it called? You'll make your eyes quite sore if you go on crying like that! Yes--I am your mother--most unfortunately!--I hoped you would never know it!--but now--as you are left quite alone in the world, I have come to see what I can do for you." Innocent checked her sobs, and lifting her head looked straight into the rather shallow bright eyes that regarded her with such cold and easy scrutiny. "You can do nothing for me," she answered, in a low voice--"You never have done anything for me. If you are my mother, you are an unnatural one!" And moved by a sudden, swift emotion, she stood up with indignation and scorn lighting every feature of her face. "I was in your way at my birth--and you were glad to be rid of me. Why should you seek me now?" Lady Blythe glanced her over amusedly.