"No, I should say I won't!" said Henry emphatically. "I never
thought of anything being the matter with Polly that wouldn't be
all over when the baby came -- "
"I know you didn't, Henry," said Kate. "I know how much you would
have done, and how gladly, if you had known. There is no use
going into that, we are both very much to blame; we must take our
punishment. Now what is this I hear about your having been to see
lawyers and trying to find a way to set aside the adoption papers
you signed? Let's have a talk, and see what we can arrive at.
Tell me all about it."
So Henry told Kate how he had loved Polly, how he felt guilty of
her death, how he longed for and wanted her baby, how he had
signed the paper which Polly put before him so unexpectedly, to
humour her, because she was very ill; but he had not dreamed that
she could die; how he did not feel that he should be bound by that
signature now. Kate listened with the deepest sympathy, assenting
to most he said until he was silent. Then she sat thinking a long
time. At last she said: "Henry, if you and Polly had waited
until I came home, and told me what you wanted and how you felt, I
should have gotten her ready, and given you a customary wedding,
and helped you to start a life that I think would have saved her
to you, and to me. That is past, but the fact remains. You are
hurt over giving up the baby as you have; I'm hurt over losing my
daughter as I did; we are about even on the past, don't you
think?"
"I suppose we are," he said, heavily.
"That being agreed," said Kate, "let us look to the future. You
want the baby now, I can guess how much, by how much I want her,
myself. I know YOUR point of view; there are two others, one is
mine, and the other is the baby's. I feel that it is only right
and just that I should have this little girl to replace the one
you took from me, in a way far from complimentary to me. I feel
that she is mine, because Polly told me the day she came to see me
how sick she had been, how she had begged for a doctor, and been
kissed and told there was nothing the matter with her, when she
knew she was very ill. She gave the baby to me, and at that time
she had been to see a lawyer, and had her papers all made out
except the signatures and dates. Mr. Thomlins can tell you that;
and you know that up to that time I had not seen Polly, or had any
communication with her. She simply was unnerved at the thought of
trusting her baby to the care she had had."