The face of Mrs. Lane instantly flushed at this, a suggestion which had not before been presented to her mind.

“Did he refer to this subject in conversing with your husband?” inquired Amanda, with forced calmness.

“He did.”

“What did he say?”

“That, in any event, he could not and would not be separated from his child.  And you know, Amanda, that the law will give to him its guardianship.”

“The law!” There was a huskiness in Mrs. Lane’s voice.

“Yes, Amanda, the law.  It is well for you to view this matter in all its relations.  The law regards the father as the true guardian of the child.  If, therefore, you separate yourself from your husband, you must expect to bear a separation from your child; for that will be most likely to follow.”

“Did he speak of the law?” asked Mrs. Lane, in a still calmer voice, and with a steady eye.

“It would not be right to conceal from you this fact, Amanda.  He did do so.  And can you wholly blame him?  It is his child as well as yours.  He loves it, as you well know; and, as its father, he is responsible for it to society and to Heaven.  This separation is your act.  You may deprive him of your own society; but, have you a right, at the same time, to rob him of his child?  I speak plainly; I would not be your friend did I not do so.  Try, for a little while, to look away from yourself, and think of your husband; and especially of the consequences likely to arise to your child from your present act.  It will not be a mere separation with passive endurance of pain on either side.  There will come the prolonged effort of the father to recover his child, and the anguish and fear of the mother, as she lives in the constant dread of having it snatched from her hands.  And that must come, inevitably, the final separation.  You will have to part from your child, Amanda, if not in the beginning, yet finally.  You know your husband to be of a resolute temper Do not give him a chance to press you to extremity.  If he should come to the determination to recover his child from your hands, he will not stop short of any means to accomplish his purpose.”

Mrs. Lane made no reply to this; nor did she answer to any further remark, appeal, or suggestion of her friend, who soon ceased to speak on the subject and left her to her own reflections, hoping that they might lead her to some better purpose than had yet influenced her in the unhappy business.  On the day after, Mr. Edmondson met Lane in the street.

“I was about calling to see you,” said the latter, “on the subject of this unhappy difficulty, to which, so reluctantly to yourself, you have become a party.  It may be that I am something to blame.  Perhaps I have been too exacting—­too jealous of my prerogative as a husband.  At any rate, I am willing to admit that such has been the case; and willing to yield something to the morbid feelings of my wife.  What is her present state of mind?”