d by gazing into her eyes, touching her hand, and listening to her
voice. It seemed to him that, if this separation lasted much longer, he
should lose all faith in the fact of their relation. Very impatient
thoughts of poor old Mrs. Carr filled Stephen's thoughts in these days.
Heretofore she had been no barrier to his happiness; her still and
childlike presence was no restraint upon him; he had come to disregard it
as he would the presence of an infant in a cradle. Therefore, he had, or
thought he had, the kindest of feelings towards her; but now that her
helpless paralyzed hands had the power to shut him away from Mercy, he
hated her, as he had always hated every thing which stood between him and
delight. Yet, had it been his duty to minister to her, he would have done
it as gently, as faithfully, as Mercy herself. He would have spoken to her
in the mildest and tenderest of tones, while in his heart he wished her
dead. So far can a fine fastidiousness, allied to a sentiment of
compassion, go towards making a man a consummate hypocrite.

Parson Dorrance came often to see Mercy, but always with Lizzy Hunter. By
the subtle instinct of love, he knew that to see him thus, and see him
often, would soonest win back for him his old place in Mercy's life. The
one great desire he had left now was to regain that,--to see her again
look up in his face with the frank, free, loving look which she always had
had until that sad morning.

A strange incident happened to Mercy in these first weeks of her mother's
illness. She was called to the door one morning by the message that a
stranger wished to speak to her. She found standing there an elderly
woman, with a sweet but care-worn face, who said eagerly, as soon as she
appeared,--

"Are you Mrs. Philbrick?"

"Yes," said Mercy. "Did you wish to see me?"

The woman hesitated a moment, as if trying to phrase her sentence, and
then burst out impetuously, with a flood of tears,--

"Won't you come and help me make my husband come home. He is so sick, and
I believe he will die in that wretched old garret."

Mercy looked at her in blank astonishment, and her first thought was that
she must be insane; but the woman continued,--

"I'm Mrs. Wheeler. You never saw me before, but my husband's talked about
you ever since he first saw you on the street, that day. You're the only
human being I've ever known him take a fancy to; and I do believe, if
anybody could do any thing with him, you cou