“Very likely not, my boy--though he did make me that angry by calling you ugly! And I don't believe I should have taken you at all, if that woman hadn't sent me away for no reason but to have a nurse of her choosing. How could I leave my sister's child in the power of such a woman! Day and night, Richard, was I haunted with the sight of her cold face hanging over you. I was certain the devil might have his way with her when he chose: there was no love in her to prevent him. In my dreams I saw her giving you poison, or with a pen-knife in her hand, and her eyes shining like ice. I could _not_ bear it. I should have gone mad to leave you there. I knew I was committing a crime in the eyes of the law; but I felt a stronger law compelling me; and I said to myself, 'I will be hanged for my child, rather than my child should be murdered! I will _not_ leave him with that woman!' So I took you, Richard!” “Thank you, mother, a thousand times! I am sure it was right, and every way best for me! Oh, how much I owe you and my--uncle! I must call you _mother_ still, but I'm afraid I shall have to call my father _uncle_!” “It won't hurt him, Richard; he has been a good uncle to you, but I don't think he would have taught you the things he did, if you had been his very own child!” “He has done me no harm, mother,--nothing but good,” said Richard. “--And so you are my own mother's sister?” “Yes, and a good mother she would have been to you! You must not think of her as a grim old woman like me! She was but six and twenty when you were born and she died! She was the most beautiful woman _I_ ever saw, Richard!--Never another woman's hand has touched your body but hers and mine, Richard!”