For Name and Fame | Page 5

is a prodigy," Mrs. Ripon said, with a little toss of her head, "and I shall go up to the nursery, to admire him."
So saying, she walked off with dignity; and Captain Ripon went out to look at his horses, and thought to himself what a wonderful dispensation of providence it was, that mothers were so fond of their babies.
"I don't know what the poor little beggars would do," he muttered, "if they had only their fathers to look after them; but I suppose we should take to it, just as the old goose in the yard has taken to that brood of chickens, whose mother was carried off by the fox.
"By the way, I must order some wire netting. I forgot to write for it, yesterday."
Another two months. It was June, and now even Captain Ripon allowed that Tom could say "Pa," and "Ma," with tolerable distinctness; but as yet he had got no farther. He could now run about sturdily and, as the season was warm and bright, and Mrs. Ripon believed in fresh air, the child spent a considerable portion of his time in the garden.
One day his mother was out with him, and he had been running about for some time. Mrs. Ripon was picking flowers, for she had a dinner party that evening, and she enjoyed getting her flowers, and arranging her vases, herself. Presently she looked round, but Tom was missing. There were many clumps of ornamental shrubs on the lawn, and Mrs. Ripon thought nothing of his disappearance.
"Tom," she called, "come to mamma, she wants you," and went on with her work.
A minute or two passed.
"Where is that little pickle?" she said. "Hiding, I suppose," and she went off in search.
Nowhere was Tom to be seen. She called loudly, and searched in the bushes.
"He must have gone up to the house.
"Oh, here comes nurse. Nurse, have you seen Master Tom? He has just run away," she called.
"No, ma'am, I have seen nothing of him."
"He must be about the garden then, somewhere. Look about, nurse. Where can the child have hidden itself?"
Nurse and mother ran about, calling loudly the name of the missing child. Five minutes later Mrs. Ripon ran into the study, where her husband was going through his farm accounts.
"Oh, Robert," she said, "I can't find Tom!" and she burst into tears.
"Not find Tom?" her husband said, rising in surprise. "Why, how long have you missed him?"
"He was out in the garden with me. I was picking flowers for the dinner table and, when I looked round, he was gone. Nurse and I have been looking everywhere, and calling, but we cannot find him."
"Oh, he is all right," Captain Ripon said, cheerfully. "Do not alarm yourself, little woman. He must have wandered into the shrubbery. We shall hear him howling, directly. But I will come and look for him."
No better success attended Captain Ripon's search than that which his wife had met with. He looked anxious, now. The gardeners and servants were called, and soon every place in the garden was ransacked.
"He must have got through the gate, somehow, into the park," Captain Ripon said, hurrying in that direction. "He certainly is not in the garden, or in any of the hothouses."
Some of the men had already gone in that direction. Presently Captain Ripon met one, running back.
"I have been down to the gate, sir, and can see nothing of Master Tom; but in the middle of the drive, just by the clump of laurels by the gate, this boot was lying--just as if it had been put there on purpose, to be seen."
"Nonsense!" Captain Ripon said. "What can that have to do with it?"
Nevertheless he took the boot, and looked at it. It was a roughly-made, heavy boot, such as would be worn by a laboring man. He was about to throw it carelessly aside, and to proceed on his search, when he happened to turn it over. Then he started, as if struck.
"Good Heaven!" he exclaimed, "it is the gypsy's."
Yes, he remembered it now. The man had pleaded not guilty, when brought up at the assizes, and the boot had been produced as evidence. He remembered it particularly because, after the man was sentenced, his wife had provoked a smile by asking that the boots might be given up to her; in exchange for a better pair for her husband to put on, when discharged from prison.
Yes, it was clear. The gypsy woman had kept her word, and had taken her revenge. She had stolen the child, and had placed the boot where it would attract attention, in order that the parents might know the hand that struck them.
Instantly Captain Ripon ran to the stable, ordered the groom to mount at once, and scour every road and lane; while he