first,"
answered Hagar.

More than once that day Madam Conway had heard the servants hint that
Hagar's grief had driven her insane; and now when she observed the
unnatural brightness in her eyes, and saw what she had done, she too
thought it possible that her mind was partially unsettled; so she said
gently, but firmly: "This is no time for foolishness, Hagar. They are
waiting for us in the sickroom; so make haste and change the baby's
dress."

There was something authoritative in her manner, and Hagar obeyed,
whispering incoherently to herself, and thus further confirming
her mistress' suspicions that she was partially insane. During the
ceremony she stood tall and erect like some dark, grim statue, her
hands firmly locked together, and her eyes fixed upon the face of
the little one who was baptized Margaret Miller. As the clergyman
pronounced that name she uttered a low, gasping moan, but her face
betrayed no emotion, and very calmly she stepped forward with the
other child upon her arm.

"What name?" asked the minister; and she answered, "Her mother's; call
her for her mother!"

"Hester," said Madam Conway, turning to the clergyman, who understood
nothing from Hagar's reply.

So Hester was the name given to the child in whose veins the blood of
English noblemen was flowing; and when the ceremony was ended Hagar
bore back to her room Hester Hamilton, the child defrauded of her
birthright, and Maggie Miller, the heroine of our story.

CHAPTER III

HESTER AND MAGGIE.

"It is over now," old Hagar thought, as she laid the children upon
their pillows. "The deed is done, and by their own hands too. There is
nothing left for me now but a confession, and that I cannot make;" so
with a heavy weight upon her soul she sat down, resolving to keep her
own counsel and abide the consequence, whatever it might be.

But it wore upon her terribly,--that secret,--and though it helped
in a measure to divert her mind from dwelling too much upon her
daughter's death it haunted her continually, making her a strange,
eccentric woman whom the servants persisted in calling crazy, while
even Madam Conway failed to comprehend her. Her face, always dark,
seemed to have acquired a darker, harder look, while her eyes wore a
wild, startled expression, as if she were constantly followed by some
tormenting fear. At first Mrs. Miller objected to trusting her with
the babe; but when Madam Conway suggested that the woman who had
cha