"My husband couldn't supply me with a thousand cents, even
if he were willing, which is not likely."
"Much as I am flattered by your application," said Somerville,
"since it would seem to place me next in your estimation to your
husband, I cannot help suggesting that it is not usual to bestow
such a sum on a stranger, or even a friend, without an equivalent
rendered."
"I am ready to give you an equivalent."
"Of what value?"
"I am willing to be silent."
"And how can your silence benefit me?"
John Somerville asked this question with an assumption of
indifference, but his fingers twitched nervously.
"That _you_ will be best able to estimate," said Peg.
"Explain yourself."
"I can do that in a few words. You employed me to kidnap a child. I
believe the law has something to say about that. At any rate, the
child's mother may have."
"What do you know about the child's mother?" demanded Somerville,
hastily.
"All about her!" returned Peg, emphatically.
"How am I to know that? It is easy to claim the knowledge."
"Shall I tell you all? In the first place she married your cousin,
_after rejecting you_. You never forgave her for this. When a year
after marriage her husband died, you renewed your proposals. They
were rejected, and you were forbidden to renew the subject on pain
of forfeiting her friendship forever.
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