8

every spot for our Lucy; so cheerup, for I surely
shall find her! "Oh then," said the poor old man mournfully, and shaking
his head, "you must go to the other world to look for her!" "Why, what
is it you would say?" cried William starting with horror.
The wretched parents answered only with groans. The hat
fell from William's hands--he sunk on a chair, and his eyes rolled
round the room as if searching for some horrible, some bloody
sight. "You have not liked her," {cried} he--"you could
not, oh you could not."--but where is the dirk?"
And his frenzied eye rested on the nail, where from time
immemorial it had hung. "Am I murderer--man?" Then dropping
again into his seat, and covering his face with his clenched
hands. "Yes, I am, I am!--but Oh William,
with no dagger--not with a dagger did I kill my child,
but with cruelty--more than a murderer's cruelty!"
"Then she is not dead," said William, again reviving, "she is
not dead. She would not, I know she would not kill
herself. Oh no", said he bursting into tears, "for the sake
of her unborn babe, for my sale, she would live--and
I will seek--I will find her." And again he snatched
up his hat, and not all the persuasions of the
old man could prevail on him to wait till morning,
or eat a mouthful before he went. The night
was dark, but the way to the city was familiar to him, and
he determined to go, since all the neighborhood had
been already searched. He began at one end.
He stopped at every house,
at every door he enquired, "whether
a likely young woman, in desperate distress, was there?", { ?}
turing that among the rich she might have sought for
employment or among the poor for shelter, But vain
was his search. The servants of the rich often repulsed
him with scorn and derision and poor girl {ies?} tho' they {joked?}