With no unkindly hand, knowing that it would not be tolerated, she raised the Duchess's chin with her fingers, so that the lady and gentleman could see her face. At the same moment Seth Dumbrick plucked the Duchess from the gipsy, and pressed her to his side, with a steady eye upon the gentleman. "What a lovely child!" cried the lady, stooping, and placing her hand on the Duchess's shoulder. "Look, Mr. Temple. Did you ever in your life see so beautiful a face?" He paused before he replied, and then the words came slowly from his lips. "Once I saw a face as beautiful." "When? Where?" eagerly asked the lady. "In a dream." "A dream!" exclaimed the gipsy, tracing a line on Sally's hand. "There are dreams mixed up with this little lady's fortune." "Oh, yes, yes!" cried Sally. "I have 'em! I have 'em!" The gipsy turned to Seth. "Do I read the signs in the usual way?" "You have hit enough nails on the head," said Seth, "and you have earned your money. It is time for us to go." "Not yet, oh, not yet," interposed the lady. "We want this lovely child's fortune told." She drew the Duchess from Seth; the child, fascinated by her pretty face and soft silk dress, went willingly enough, and Sally and Seth looked on with jealous, uneasy eyes. "You need not be frightened, my good man. I shall not harm your daughter." "Bless your ladyship's heart," said the gipsy, "he's not her father." "How does she know?" inquired the lady. "Is it true?" For a moment a falsehood rested on Seth's lips, but he refused to utter it. "She's not my child," he said. "I have adopted her." "Mr. Temple," said the lady excitedly, "does the law permit children to be bought and sold? I should like to buy this child." Seth looked frowningly at the lady, but all her attention being bestowed on the Duchess, she did not observe this evidence of his displeasure. The frown, however, was met by another and a sterner from the gentleman, who thus stood forward as the lady's champion. Seth did not lower his eyes, and the assumption of superiority in the gentleman's demeanour brought an expression of contempt and defiance into his own. It was not likely, after the fixed gaze with which they regarded each other, that either would forget the other's face. Seth observed more than the face of the man who confronted him. Every detail of dress, bearing, and manner photographed itself upon his mind, and an instinctive dislike for the fine gentleman took possession of him. "Did you hear what I said?" cried the lady, addressing the gentleman, and smoothing the silky hair of the Duchess. "I should like to buy this child? What has the law to say to the bargain?" "I am afraid that the law would not support you," said the gentleman. "I am sure that nature would not," said Seth sternly. "Why, my good man, you have confessed that you are not the child's father."