"He is an orphan, and was destined for an institution."
"You know this?"
"Positively."
"Then I shall keep the child. Harry, will you stay with me?"
To my amazement the little arms crept round his neck. A smile grim
enough, in my estimation, but not at all frightful to the child,
responded to this appeal.
"I did not like the old man and woman," he said.
Doctor Pool's whole manner showed triumph. "I shall treat him better
than I did you," he remarked. "I am a regenerate man now."
I bowed; I was very uneasy; there was a question I wanted to ask and
could not in the presence of this child.
"He is hardly of an age to take my place," I observed, still under the
spell of my surprise, for the child was handling the old man's long
beard, and seeming almost as happy as Gwendolen did in Mrs. Carew's
arms.
"He will have one of his own," was the doctor's unexpected reply.