"Well, sir, sure enough, two days after the advertisement come out, it
was answered in the cruelest letter I ever set eyes on. The clergyman
he come to me with it. 'It was left this evening,' says he, 'by a
strange messenger, who went away directly. I told my servant to follow
him; but it was too late--he was out of sight.' The letter was very
short, and we thought it was in a woman's handwriting--a feigned
handwriting, the clergyman said. There was no name signed, and no date
at top or bottom. Inside it there was a ten-pound bank-note; and the
person as sent it wrote that it was enclosed to bury the young woman
decently. 'She was better dead than alive'--the letter went on--'after
having disgraced her father and her relations. As for the child, it was
the child of sin, and had no claim on people who desired to preserve
all that was left of their good name, and to set a moral example to
others. The parish must support it if nobody else would. It would be
useless to attempt to trace them, or to advertise again. The baby's
father had disappeared, they didn't know where; and they could hold no
communication now with such a monster of wickedness, even if he was
found. She was dead in her shame and her sin; and her name should never
be mentioned among them she belonged to henceforth for ever.
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