"But Esmeralda, Mr. Garside's Esmeralda," I cried in sore perplexity, "was brought up in his mother's house, and yet you say she was your daughter. Oh! I remember now--he said the child was left on the doorstep of his mother's house. And your hands laid her there?" "Aye, marry, that they did, and oft I've rued it. But I did it for the best. I saw no way of rearing the bairn myself, and I'd no mind the bonnie wee thing should lead the life, the only life, I saw before me. Twas bad enough for me to cast in with the Burnplatters, but I thought to find a safe asylum for my bairn." "But the child's father?" I could not help suggesting. "She _had_ a father, and a lawful father. That's enough for you, Abel Holmes. Old Mother Sykes was not a Burnplatter born and bred. I'd as fair a beginning as e'er a man need wish. Oh, I can talk fine, like you, when I want, so you needn't stare as if you'd seen a boggard. Some day, if I live long enough, and if you prove your right to know, I'll tell you my story. But it boots not to-night. Tell me only one thing, and I think I can die happy. You say that Esmeralda was James Garside's wedded wife. Can'st prove it?" "Aye, that I can. My father says--" "Aye, thi feyther 'll know," nodded the sick woman, lapsing again into our common speech. "My father says these Gretna Green marriages were binding enough, and I've the blacksmith's own certificate safe at home yonder. I'll bring it to you next time I come. James Garside and Esmeralda--Esmeralda Atkinson, aye, that was the name--were tied as fast as the law of Scotland could tie them." "And that villain of a man that went to her from Manchester swore that the wedding was all a sham. Told her her lover had sent him to her to get shut of her. Offered her money, bid her name her own price, only go, go, go, anywhere, so long as she crossed James Garside's path no more. Said that if she loved, and loved truly, she would best show her love by vanishing from her so-called husband's life for ever. To cling to him were to ruin him. And she, poor child, believed him. She flung his money in his face, and bid him return to the false coward who had sent him, and say that never more should he look upon her face again. She stripped off the fine clothing and the jewel's his money had bought, and left them all behind her. That ring was one of them." "You knew the ring then, mother?"