Now,
either she will be very glad to have the boy back again, and pay for
the finding of him, or else she has said nothing about him, and will
pay us for being silent too: or, at any rate, Hayes himself will be
ashamed at finding his wife the mother of a child a year older than
his marriage, and will pay for the keeping of the brat away.
There's profit, my dear, in any one of the cases, or my name's not
Peter Brock."
When the Ensign understood this wondrous argument, he would fain
have fallen on his knees and worshipped his friend and guide. They
began operations, almost immediately, by an attack on Mrs. Hayes.
On hearing, as she did in private interview with the ex-corporal the
next morning, that her son was found, she was agitated by both of
the passions which Wood attributed to her. She longed to have the
boy back, and would give any reasonable sum to see him; but she
dreaded exposure, and would pay equally to avoid that. How could
she gain the one point and escape the other?
Mrs. Hayes hit upon an expedient which, I am given to understand, is
not uncommon nowadays. She suddenly discovered that she had a dear
brother, who had been obliged to fly the country in consequence of
having joined the Pretender, and had died in France, leaving behind
him an only son.
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