believe it; she never did
believe it--never--and she taught me not to, and I never did. But, all
the same, it killed her."

"And then wot became of you?" asked Connie.

"I was taken here," replied Ronald. "That's three or four months ago
now. I remember quite well being out walking with my nurse. She wasn't
very nice, my nurse wasn't; but she was--oh, so good and kind compared
to--what--what happened afterwards! Darling mother was dead. They had
put her body in the grave, and the angels had got her soul. I didn't
like to think of the grave, but I did love to remember the angels. The
last thing mother said when she was dying was, 'Ronald, when your father
comes back, be sure you tell him that I never believed that he was
really dead.'"

"I promised her, and then she said again, 'And you'll never believe it
either, Ronald.' And I said that I never, never would, if it was a
thousand years. And then she kissed me and smiled; and I s'pose the
angels took her, for she never spoke any more."

"Well," said Connie, who did not want Ronald to dwell too long on this
very sad scene, "tell us 'bout the day you come 'ere."

"Mother was in her grave," said Ronald, "and there was no one who
thought very much about me; and my nurse--she was not half as kind as
when mother lived. One day she took me for a walk. We went a long, long
way, and presently she asked me to wait for her outside one of those
awful gin-palaces. She used to go in there sometimes, even when mother
was alive. Well, I waited and waited outside, but she never came out. I
was not a bit frightened at first, of course, for my father's boy
mustn't be a coward, must he, Connie?"

"No," answered Connie.

"But she didn't come out, and it got late, and people began to look at
me, and by-and-by Mammy Warren came out of the gin-palace. She was--oh,
so red in the face! and I thought I'd never seen so dreadfully stout a
woman. She put her hand on my shoulder and said, 'Wotever are you doing
here?' And I said, 'I'm waiting for my nurse, Hannah Waters.' And she
said, 'Oh, then, _you're_ the little boy!' And I stared at her, and she
said, 'Pooh Hannah's took bad, and she's asked me to take you home. Come
along at once, my dear.'

"I went with her. I wasn't a bit frightened--I had never been frightened
in all my life up to then. But she didn't take me home at all. She
brought me to this house. She was very kind to me at first, in a sort of
a way, and she told me that my rela