."

Mrs. Martin was alone when Annie entered the room.

"Well, my dear, and why ain't you at dinner?" asked the old woman. She
was still fond of Annie, whom she invariably spoke of as "a winsome
young body," but recent events had soured her considerably, and as she
herself expressed it, the keenest pleasure now left to her in life was
to "mope and mutter."

"Moping and muttering eases the mind," she said; "it's a wonderful
relief not to have to sit up straight and smiling when you feel crooked
and all of a frown."

Accordingly Mrs. Martin received Annie Forest with brief displeasure.

"I have no heart for dinner," said Annie, who took her cue at once from
the old woman's face. "I know you are miserable, Nurse Martin, but you
need not look at me so scornfully, for I am trying to mend matters."

"You," exclaimed nurse, "a child like you! Now, Miss Annie, I would try
and talk sensibly, I would, really."

"Well, I'm going off to the Towers for the night," said Annie, "and if
you weren't so cross I'd like to say good-bye and give you a kiss before
I started."

"Eh, dear," replied nurse, her countenance visibly softening however;
"kisses, however sweet they be, don't heal sore places."

"But you'll take one, won't you, nursey?"

"Eh, my bairn, you have a winsome way, but don't you come canoodling me
now, when my heart is like to break about my own dear children; and the
young ladies at the Towers, too, in such a muck of trouble."

"Dear nursey," exclaimed Annie; "dear, loving, faithful, true-hearted
nursey."

She stroked the old woman's brow and rubbed her soft cheek against hers.

"Out with it now, my pet," said Nurse Martin. "What is it you want me to
do? If it's the pawn-shop again--once for all, no, I won't."

"It isn't the pawn-shop," said Annie; "it's just to ask you a simple
question. I asked Hester, but she couldn't tell me. Is Sir John Thornton
a rich man?"

"Is he rich?" echoed nurse; "do you think _she'd_ be after him if he
wasn't?"

"I don't know. Is he rich, nursey?"

"Yes, he's rich," replied nurse.

"Very, very rich? Dear Nurse Martin, please say yes."

"He's rich," replied nurse in an emphatic voice. "He has got his gold
and his lands, and not a debt anywhere, and small expenses compared to
his means. Yes, he's rich. More shame to him for taking the money from
Miss Hester and Miss Nan to provide a new wife and an outlandish
stepdaughter."

"If he lost a lot of money, a great lot, woul