, though she
would let no one visit it on the child. I have been told that it was
most pathetic to see how she strove to win forgiveness from her
mother, how she watched and waited on her month after month with never
a sign from the old woman, who was not as strong as she had been. The
pain in her side took her occasionally, and since any exertion brought
it on she was fain at last to sit quietly in the chimney-corner a good
deal more than she had been used to. She had seen the doctor, very
much against her will, and he had said her heart was affected, but
with care and avoiding great excitement, it might last her to a good
old age.

Maggie was glad of the hard work put upon her. She washed and swept
and scrubbed and polished all day long, with a touching little air of
cheerfulness which never ceased to be sad unless when she was crooning
love-songs to the baby. She made no effort to take up her old friends
again, though she was so grateful when any one stopped and admired the
baby. She quite realised that her sin had set her apart, that nothing
in all the world could give her back what she had lost, and set her
again by the side of those happy companions of her childhood.

As the time passed she never seemed to feel that her mother was hard
and unrelenting. She bore her dark looks and her silence with amazing
patience. Usually the old woman seemed never to notice the child; but
once Maggie came in and saw her gazing at the sleeping face in the
cradle with what seemed to her a look of scorn and dislike. She gave a
great cry, like the cry of a wounded thing, and snatching the child,
ran out with him bareheaded, carrying him away to the high cliffs
covered with flowers full of honey, and there she crooned and cried
over him till the soothing of the sweet wind and the sunshine eased
her heart, and the blighting gaze that had fallen upon her darling had
left no shadow.

For her two brothers she felt and displayed a doglike devotion and
gratitude. The big fellows were sometimes almost uneasy under the love
of her eyes, and the thousand and one offices she was always doing for
them to try to make up to them for her past. They had come to take an
intense interest, at first half shamefaced, in the baby. But as he
grew older and full of winning ways, one could not always remember
that he was a child of shame, and he made just as much sunshine as any
lawful child makes in a house. More indeed, for in all the Island was
never