"I want thy help, Tony," she said. "I have been searching, and at length, I have found it. But I cannot carry it forth myself." "Found what?" "O--how can you ask? Do you not see what it is?" It was an old, dusty, cobweb-covered, wooden cradle. "What do you want, Urith, with this wretched bit of rummage?" "What do I want it for? O--Tony, of course you know. It is true I shall not need it immediately--not for some months, but I shall like to have it forth, and clean it well, and polish its sides, and fit it up with little mattress and pillows, and whatsoever it need, before the time comes when it is required to be put in use." "I will not have this wretched old cradle," said Anthony. "It is not meet for my son--the heir to Hall and Willsworthy." "You are reckoning too soon--" laughed Urith. "Perhaps you may have a daughter, not a son." "A daughter! I do not want a maid; no--I shall never forgive you, if it be not a boy. Urith, My--everything depends on that. When there is a new Anthony Cleverdon, my father can hold out in his obstinacy no longer. He must give way. An Anthony Cleverdon of Willsworthy, and _not_ of Hall! It would go against all his pride, against his most cherished ambition. It cannot, it shall not be. Urith, a boy it must be, and what is more, he shall not lie in that dusty, cobweb-clad pig-trough. It would not become him." "But, Tony," laughed Urith, "it was mine, I was rocked in that. It was not so bad that I could not sleep therein." "Oh, you!" he spoke disparagingly in tone. "You were only heiress of Willsworthy, but my young Anthony will be something much different from that." "I want my child to lie in the same crib in which I was rocked. It will be a pleasure to me." "I will not have it. This is too mean." "What does it signify?" "If it does not signify, then let me go and buy a new cradle." "No," said Urith. "No--there I lay when a poor little feeble creature; and there, in the same, it shall lie when it comes." "I will go into Peter Tavy to the carpenter, and order a new cradle." "I will not use it if you do. We have not the money to waste on luxuries. A child will sleep as well in this as in a painted cradle." All at once, Anthony flushed to the roots of his hair. A thought had struck him, that if he bought a new cradle he must do so with his wife's money. He had nothing of his own. He was her pensioner. There stood at his side an old rusty bar of iron; in his anger and disgust he grasped this, raised it, and brought it down on the cradle, breaking down its side. "Anthony!" exclaimed Urith. "Anthony! you would not have done that had any love, any respect remained in your heart for me. You would have loved the little crib in which I was laid, if you loved me." He did not answer her. Ashamed at his own conduct, embittered at her opposition to his wishes, discontented with his lot, he left the garret and descended the stairs.