she is off her head, I tell you! She ain't
got anything to say."

The Rector looked at her steadily. For the first time it occurred to him
that the younger woman had some unworthy motive in her desire to silence
her mother and to get the listeners out of the room. Dislike of
interference, jealousy, and bad temper would not entirely account, he
thought, for her intense and angry agitation. Had Mrs. Meldreth and her
daughter some secret which the mother would gladly confess and the girl
was fain to hide?

A feeble voice sounded from the bed.

"Is it Miss Enid?" said Mrs. Meldreth. "Has she come?"

"No," said Sabina boldly and loudly. "You go to sleep, mother, and don't
you bother about Miss Enid."

"Miss Meldreth, how dare you try to deceive a dying woman?" said the
Rector, so sternly that even Sabina quailed a little before the deep low
tones of his voice. "Yes, Mrs. Meldreth, Miss Enid Vane is here, and you
can say all that you wish to say to her."

"I am here, nurse," said Enid gently--she had always been in the habit
of addressing Mrs. Meldreth by that title. "Do you want me?"

"Oh, my dearie," said the old woman dreamily, "and have you come to me
after all? Sabina there, she tried to keep you away; but I had my will
at last. Polly told you that I wanted you, didn't she, Miss Enid dear?"

"Yes, nurse, she told me."

"I'll pay Polly Moss out for that!" Sabina was heard to mutter between
her closed teeth. But Enid took no notice of the words.

"I'd something to say to you, my dearie," said Mrs. Meldreth, whose
voice, though feeble, was now perfectly distinct; "and 'dearie' I must
call you, although I haven't the right to do it now. I held you in my
arms, my dear, five minutes after you came into this here wicked world,
and I've allus looked on you as one o' my own babies, so to speak."

The delicate color had flushed Enid's cheeks a little, but she answered
simply, "Yes, dear nurse;" and, leaning down, she kissed the old woman's
forehead.

The caress moved the Rector strangely. His heart gave an odd bound, the
blood began to course more rapidly through his veins. He was a
clergyman, and he was in the presence of a dying woman; but he was a
man for all that, and at the moment when Enid's pure lips were pressed
to her old nurse's brow, his whole being was stirred by a new emotion,
which as yet he did not suspect was known amongst men by the name of
love.

Sabina Meldreth had withdrawn from her station at t