n, but you will find that she is quite
willing, even anxious--"

"Yes," said Evie, and lay silently gazing at the heart of the fire. The
downcast face looked very fair and fragile, but for the moment the old
sweetness was wanting. The lips were pressed together, the chin was
fixed and stubborn, outward signs of the mental fight which was going on
between the impulse to give way, and a sore, sore feeling of injury
which made it seem impossible to accept a favour from this quarter of
all others. The elder woman saw these signs, and read their meaning
with painful accuracy, and the exclamation which burst from her lips
startled the invalid by its intensity.

"Oh, my lassie!" she cried. "Oh, my lassie, be generous! You have been
sorely tried, and our hearts are broken to think of your trouble, but
don't you see this is the only way in which it is left to us to help?
Sympathy and regret are abstract things, and can do no real good, for,
though they ease our minds, they leave you untouched. My dear girl, can
you be generous enough to accept help from the hands that have injured
you? It's a hard thing to ask--I know it is; but I am an old woman, and
I plead with you to give us this opportunity! Let me be a mother to
you, dear, and ease your recovery in every way that I can. Money has
great power, and one never realises it more than in time of sickness. I
can spare you many a pain and discomfort if you will give me the
opportunity, and my poor girl is fretting herself thin by brooding over
the past--it would be new life to her to be allowed to wait upon you!
It's hard for you, dear, I know it's hard! You would rather cut
yourself adrift from us, and never see us again; but it is in your power
to return good for evil--to lighten our trouble as no one else could do.
Will you come, Evie?"

Evie looked into the quivering face, and her eyes shone--then the kind
arms opened wide and the brown head nestled down on the broad, motherly
shoulder. There was no need for words, for the answer was given far
more eloquently in look and gesture.

"God bless you, my lassie!" murmured Mrs Chester fondly, and they sat
in silence together, gazing into the fire. A few tears rose in Evie's
eyes and ran silently down her cheeks, but they were happy tears, with
which were wiped away all remains of bitterness. There is no truer way
of forgiving our enemies than by consenting to be helped at their hands,
and, if the effort be great, it