For a week or so, the money to pay for the child came almost regularly, in postage-stamps, then ceased altogether, and the woman heard nothing either from or of the mother.

After a fortnight she contrived to go to the hospital to inquire after her.

No one corresponding to her description was in the place.

The name was a common one, and several patients bearing it had lately died and been buried, while others had recovered and were gone.

Her inquiries in the neighborhood had no better success: no one knew her, and she did not even discover where she had lived.