"To throw a tender baby out like that is a hard thing.

I am afraid--" "There, there! no more of that," returned Mrs.Dinneford, impatiently.
"It's ugly work, I own, but it had to be done--like cutting off a diseased limb.

He will die, of course, and the sooner it is over, the better for him and every one else." "He will have a hard struggle for life, poor little thing!" said the nurse.

"I would rather see him dead." Mrs.Dinneford, now that this wicked and cruel deed was done, felt ill at ease.

She pushed the subject away, and tried to bury it out of sight as we bury the dead, but did not find the task an easy one.
What followed the birth and removal of Edith's baby up to the time of her return to reason after long struggle for life, has already been told.