CHAPTER X.

LOOKING AT HERSELF.

That night, which was long remembered in the annals of the Maybright
family as one of the dreariest and most terrible they had ever passed
through, came to an end at last. With the early dawn Polly was brought
home, and about the same time Nurse and Maggie reappeared with baby on
the scene.

Flower, after she had briefly told her tidings, went straight up to her
own room, where she locked the door, and remained deaf to all entreaties
on David's part that he might come in and console her.

"She's always dreadful after she has had a real bad passion," he
explained to Fly, who was following him about like a little ghost. "I
wish she would let me in. She spends herself so when she is in a passion
that she is quite weak afterwards. She ought to have a cup of tea; I
know she ought."

But it was in vain that David knocked, and that little Fly herself, even
though she felt that she hated Flower, brought the tea. There was no
sound at the other side of the locked door, and after a time the anxious
watchers went away.

At that moment, however, had anybody been outside, they might have seen
pressed against the window-pane in that same room a pale but eager face.
Had they looked, too, they might have wondered at the hard lines round
the young, finely-cut lips, and yet the eager, pleading watching in the
eyes.

There was a stir in the distance--the far-off sound of wheels. Flower
started to her feet, slipped the bolt of her door, ran downstairs, and
was off and away to meet the covered carriage which was bringing baby
home.

She called to George, who was driving it, to stop. She got in, and
seated herself beside Nurse and baby.

"How is she? Will she live?" she asked, her voice trembling.

"God grant it!" replied the Nurse. "What are you doing, Miss Flower? No,
you shan't touch her."

"I must! Give her to me this moment. There is Dr. Maybright. Give me
baby this moment. I must, I _will_, have her!"

She almost snatched the little creature out of Nurse's astonished arms,
and as the carriage drew up at the entrance steps sprang out, and put
the baby into Dr. Maybright's arms.

"There!" she said; "I took her away, but I give her back. I was in a
passion and angry when I took her away; now I repent, and am sorry, and
I give her back to you? Don't you see, I can't do more than give her
back to you? That is our way out in Victoria. Don't you slow English
people understand? I was