The Millionaire Baby — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Millionaire Baby
John Stuart Mill · en
"It is a large sum," she faltered, and for a moment she hesitated. Then,
with a sweet and candid look which sank deep into my heart, she added
gravely: "I had rather not think of money in connection with Gwendolen.
If what I have to tell leads to her recovery, you can be trusted, I
know, to do what is right toward me. Mr. Trevitt, the man who stole her
from her couch and carried her away through Mrs. Carew's grounds in a
wagon or otherwise, is a long-haired, heavily whiskered man of sixty or
more years of age. His face is deeply wrinkled, but chiefly marked by a
long scar running down between his eyebrows, which are so shaggy that
they would quite hide his eyes if they were not lit up with an
extraordinary expression of resolution, carried almost to the point of
frenzy; a fearsome man, making your heart stand still when he pauses to
speak to you."
Startled as I had seldom been, for reasons which will hereafter appear,
I surveyed her in mingled wonder and satisfaction.
"His name?" I demanded.
"I do not know his name."
Again I stopped to look at her.
"Does Mrs. Ocumpaugh?"
"I do not think so. She only knows what I told her."
"And what did you tell her?"
"Ah! who are these?"
Two or three persons had entered the station, probably to wait for the
next train.
"No one who will molest you."
But she was not content till we had withdrawn to where the time-table
hung up on the opposite wall. Turning about as if to consult it, she
told the following story. I never see a time-table now but I think of
her expression as she stood there looking up as if her mind were fixed
on what she probably did not see at all.