“But I am not where I wished to go,” replied Mrs. Lane.  “Will you be kind enough to give me the direction of the United States Hotel, and I will walk there with my child.”

The woman shook her head.

“I could not permit you to go until Mr. Bond returned,” said she.  “He brought you here, and will expect to find you when he comes back.”

“I will not remain.”  And as she said this in a firm voice, Mrs. Lane arose, and, taking her little girl in her arms, made an attempt to move through the door into the passage.  But the woman stepped before her quickly, and in a mild, yet decided way, told her that she could not leave the house.

“Why not?” asked the trembling creature.

“Mr. Bond has placed you in my care, and will expect to find you on his return,” answered the woman.

“Who is Mr. Bond?  What right has he to control my movements?”

“Did you not place yourself in his care?” inquired the woman.  “I understood him to say that such was the case.”

“He offered to protect me from wrong and insult.”

“And, having undertaken to do so, he feels himself responsible to your friends for your safe return to their hands.  I am responsible to him.”

“Deceived! deceived! deceived!” murmured Mrs. Lane, bursting into tears and sinking into a chair, while she hugged her child tightly in her arms, and laid its face against her own.

The woman seemed slightly moved at this exhibition of distress, and stood looking at the quivering frame of the unhappy fugitive, with a slight expression of regret on her face.  After Mrs. Lane had grown calm, the woman said to her: 

“Is your husband living?”

“He is,” was answered, in a steady voice.

“Where does he reside?” continued the woman.

“In New York,” replied Mrs. Lane.

“What is his name?”

Mrs. Lane reflected, hurriedly, for some moments, and then gave a correct answer, adding, at the same time, that for any attempted wrong, there would come a speedy and severe retribution.  The next inquiry of the woman was as to her husband’s occupation, which was also answered correctly.

“And now,” added Mrs. Lane, with assumed firmness, “you had better let me retire from this place immediately, and thus avoid trouble, which, otherwise, you would be certain to have.  My husband is a merchant of influence, and a man who will not stop at half measures in seeking to redress a wrong.  This man, whoever he may be, who has so basely deceived me, will find, ere long, that he has done an act which will hot go unpunished, and that severely.  As for yourself, be warned in time, and let me go from this place.”

Again Mrs. Lane sought to pass from the room, but was prevented.  The woman was neither harsh, rude, nor insulting in her manner, but firmly refused to let her leave the house, saying—­“I am responsible for your safe keeping, and cannot, therefore, let you go.”