"But why do you come after him here? I am not likely to know where he is." "I think you are likely." "Why?" "You have been talking to the boy about carrying him off with you to see coral islands. You hinted, I believe, to Mrs. Todhetley that you might really take him, if your demands were not complied with." Arne slightly laughed. "I talked to the boy about the Coral Islands because it pleased him. As to Mrs. Todhetley, if she has the sense of a goose, she must have known I meant nothing. Take off a child with me! Why, if he were made a present to me, I should only drop him at his own door at Crabb Cot, as they drop the foundlings at the gate of the Maison Dieu in Paris. Joseph Todhetley, I _could not_ be encumbered with a child: the life of shifts and concealment I have to lead would debar it." I think Tod saw he was in earnest. But he stood in indecision: this dashed out his great hope. "I should have been away from here last night, but that I got a drop too much and must wait till dark again," resumed Arne. "The last time I saw Hugh was on Thursday afternoon. He was in the meadow with _you_." "I did not see you," remarked Tod. "I saw you, though. And that is the last time I saw him. Don't you believe me? You may. I like the little lad, and would find him for you if I could, rather than help to lose him. I'd say take my honour upon this, Joseph Todhetley, only you might retort that it has not been worth anything this many a year." "And with justice," said Tod, boldly. "True. The world has been against me and I against the world. But it has not come yet with me to stealing children. With the loan of the money now safe in my pocket, I shall make a fresh start in life. A precious long time your step-mother kept me waiting for it." "She did her best. You ought not to have applied to her at all." "I know that: it should have been to the other side of the house. She prevented me: wanting, she said, to spare you and your father." "The knowledge of the disgrace. Yes." "There's no need to have recourse to hard names, Joseph Todhetley. What I am, I am, but you have not much cause to grumble, for I don't trouble you often. As many thousand miles away as the seas can put between me and England, I'm going now: and it's nearly as many chances to one against your ever seeing me again." Tod turned to depart: the intensely haughty look his face wore at odd moments had been upon it throughout the interview. Had he been a woman he might have stood with his skirts picked up, as if to save them contamination from some kind of reptile. He stayed for a final word. "Then I may take your answer in good faith--that you know nothing of Hugh?"