limbed upon a chair, and resting one arm on the
dresser, laid her round rosy cheek on it, and fallen asleep.

Mrs. Morton and Lucia were both strangers to the nurse. She merely
understood that they had come with some kind intentions towards her
charge, and when she had put chairs for them near the stove and seen
them sit down to wait, she returned to her occupation of rocking and
soothing the poor little mite she held in her arms.

CHAPTER XXI.

At last there was a movement, and a faint sigh as the sleeper awoke.
Bella, by a kind of instinctive movement, rose, and holding out her
arms, took the baby that the nurse might be at liberty to attend to the
mother. It was a strange moment. The little creature had ceased moaning,
and lay quite tranquil, its tiny face looking whiter and more wax-like
under the shadow of the heavy crape veil which hung partly over it. It
even seemed to nestle closer to the heart through which its touch sent
so keen a stab of pain, and the young widow bent low over it as her eyes
were blinded for an instant by a vision of what might have been. What
might have been! The happiness she had just begun to taste, the hope
that would have made her future bright, had been crushed together by
this child's father--yet the frail little creature lay tenderly cradled
in her arms. She looked at it; she touched the soft cheek with her cold
and trembling lips; she seemed by her own will to press the sting
through and through her heart; and as she did so, she saw and accepted
her part in life--to have henceforth no individual existence, but to
fill her solitary days with thoughts of charity, and to draw from the
recollection of her own anguish the means of consolation for the griefs
of others.

Lucia turned away. She guessed something, though but little, of her
friend's thoughts, and moved towards the bed, to be ready to speak to
Mrs. Clarkson. The little girl, released by her mother's waking, slipped
down, and joined her brother, and Lucia, seeing herself perceived, went
round to the place she had occupied.

"I do not know whether you know me, Mrs. Clarkson," she said. "I am
Lucia Costello. Doctor Hardy told my mother of your illness, and she
sent me to see whether we cannot be of some use to you or the little
ones."

Lucia had puzzled beforehand over what she should say, but finally her
little speech was just what happened to come into her head at the
moment. However, it made small difference, sin