It is quite
satisfactory that she should prove to be a gentlewoman by birth."
"And that is why I feel bound to give her up, ma'am," said Mrs. Kane,
wiping her overflowing eyes. "I've always put it before me that some day
or other her folks would come wanting her, and I've said to myself that
it would be terrible if she had grown up in the meantime with no better
education than if she was born a village lass. And yet what better could
I have done for her than I could have done for a daughter of my own if I
had had one?"
"Just so," said Mrs. Rushton; "and now you may be sure that she will be
educated, trained, dressed, and everything else, just as if she had been
in her mother's house. As for her own people coming for her, I am not
sure that I shall give her up if they do. Not unless I have grown tired
of her in the meantime."
"Tired of her!" echoed Mrs. Kane, looking at her visitor in great
surprise; "surely, madam, you do not think you will get tired of our
little Hetty!"
"I hope not, my good woman; but even if I do you cannot complain, as in
that case I shall give her back to you; that is, if it happens before
her friends come to fetch her.
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