The Dash for Khartoum | Page 4

you know what we decide upon later on."
"Well, doctor, what on earth is to be done?" he asked after the door had
closed upon the sergeant and his wife. "What do you think had best be
done, Lucy?"
But Mrs. Clinton, who was but just recovering from her illness, was too
prostrated by this terrible blow to be able to offer any suggestion.
"It is a terrible business indeed, Clinton," the doctor said, "and I feel for
you most deeply. Of course the possibility of such a thing never entered
my mind when I recommended you to let Mrs. Humphreys act as its
foster-mother. It seemed at the time quite a providential circumstance
that she too should be just confined, and in a position to take to your
baby. The only possible suggestion I can offer is that you should for a
time bring up both boys as your own. At present they are certainly
wonderfully alike, but it is probable that as they grow up you will see
in one or other of them a likeness to yourself or your wife, and that the
other will take after its own parents. Of course these likenesses do not
always exist, but in nine cases out of ten some resemblance can be
traced between a boy and one or other of his parents."
"That certainly seems feasible," Captain Clinton said in a tone of relief.

"What do you say, dear? It is only bringing up the two children for a
time till we are able to be certain which is our own. The other will have
had the advantage of a good education and so on, and of course it will
be our business to give him a good start in life."
"It will be awful having the two children, and not knowing which is our
own."
"It will be very unpleasant," Captain Clinton said soothingly; "but, you
see, in time you will come to care for them both just as if they had been
twins."
"That will be almost as bad," Mrs. Clinton cried feebly. "And suppose
one gets to love the wrong one best?"
"We won't suppose that, dear; but if we love them both equally, we will,
when we find out which is ours, treat the other as an adopted child and
complete his education, and start him in life as if he were so.
Fortunately the expense will be nothing to us."
"But this woman has a right to one of them."
"She does not deserve to have one," Captain Clinton said angrily; "but
of course we must make some arrangement with her. She is bound to
do her best to repair the terrible mischief her carelessness has caused.
Well, doctor, we will think it over for an hour or two, but certainly your
suggestion seems by far the best for us to adopt."
"The hussy!" the doctor said as he walked away to his quarters. "I am
more than half inclined to believe that she has done it on purpose. I
never liked the jade before she married, though I own that she has
turned out better than I expected. But I always thought her a designing
and artful young woman, and gave her credit for plenty of brains, and
what could suit her purpose better than this change of children? She
would see that in the first place she would get her own boy well
brought up, and perhaps provided for, with all sorts of chances of
making money out of the affair. It may have been an accident, of course,
but if so, it was a wonderfully fortunate one for her."

Such was the opinion among the women of the regiment when the news
became known, and Jane Humphreys was speedily made aware of the
fact by the change in their manner towards her. They had, however, but
small opportunity for demonstrating their opinion, for Mrs. Humphreys
remained shut up as much as possible in her room, and the one or two
women who were inclined to take a favourable view of the matter and
so called upon her, reported that she was completely prostrated by the
occurrence. Among the officers and their families the greatest
commiseration was felt for Captain Clinton and his wife, and the matter
was discussed at tiffin that day with great animation.
"Don't you think, doctor, that a woman must know her own child?" a
young ensign asked.
"Not at all, Arbuthnot; that is to say, not if you mean that she would
know it by any sort of maternal instinct. There is no such thing. She has
no more means of telling her own infant out of a dozen others of
similar complexion, age, and appearance, than she would have of
picking out her own pocket-handkerchief out of a