"I came to ask you, granny, how you came by such a beautiful granddaughter."
"Humph! The same way as other people come by grandchildren, I s'pose. My daughter ran away to be an actress, and came back in a year without a wedding ring, and left her baby on my hands, while she disappeared again forever," returned granny, with an air of such apparent truthfulness that he was staggered.
He was silent a moment, then returned to the charge.
"I should have taken her for quite eighteen."
"I don't know. I never heard of her after she ran away and left her baby on my hands."
"No; not quite seventeen, I told you, sir."
"And you do not really remember Mrs. Clarke, whom you nursed at Brookline eighteen years ago? Come, it ought to be fresh in your memory. Do you not recall the distressing facts in the case? The infant was stolen from my wife's breast, and she was dying of the shock when a spurious daughter was imposed on her, and she recovered. You, Mrs. Jenks, were sent to the foundling asylum for the child, and laid it on Mrs. Clarke's breast, restoring her to hope again. You cannot have forgotten!"
Granny Jenks looked at him angrily in the moonlight.
"You must be crazy! I don't know you, and I don't care anything about your family history! Go away!" she exclaimed fiercely.
Mr. Clarke was baffled, but not convinced. He stood his ground, saying firmly:
"You may bluster all you please, Granny Jenks, but you cannot shake my conviction that you are the wretch that stole my daughter, and placed a foundling in her place to deceive and make wretched my poor wife. This girl, Liane Lester, is the image of my wife, and I am almost persuaded she is my own daughter. If I have guessed the truth it will be wiser for you to confess the fraud at once, for denial now will be useless. I believe I am on the right track at last, and I will never stop till I uncover the truth. And--the more trouble you give me, the greater will be your punishment."
His dark eyes flashed menacingly, and the hardened old woman actually shivered with fear for an instant. Then she shook off the feeling, and turned from him angrily, reëntering her house, and snarling from the doorway:
"I know nothing about your child, you crazy fool! Go away!"