Debby lead the way to the attic, climbing up the narrow dark stairway
which lead from the kitchen bedroom and Hester followed at her heels.

The attic was low and narrow. Except in the middle, one could not walk
without stooping to escape the rafters. Along one side was a long row of
boxes and trunks in which the Aldens, for generations, had kept their
heirlooms. So far as money value was considered, there was nothing here
worth while. A surveyor's compass and staff, a spinning wheel; old blue
dishes covered with hair-like lines. There was no real lace, and there
were no handsome gowns. Nevertheless, they meant much to Debby Alden.
They were family to her.

A little low trunk was at the extreme end of the attic. It was to this
that Debby directed her steps.

"Everything in this trunk belongs to you, Hester. When I packed it away,
I put a card inside so that you might know that they were your mother's.
There's nothing at all of value. Sit down here and we'll go over them."

She knelt before the trunk and opened it. Hester, obedient to Miss
Debby's wishes, sat down on the floor near the window while the woman
took out each article and passed it to her companion.

"This is the dress your mother wore. I thought from the material that
she must have been well-to-do. She had a gentle, nice way of speaking.
She looked like a woman who had never worked hard and was used to having
things comfortable. That's why I can't understand how she could
disappear and no one search for her. We sent notices to all the papers
for miles about."

Debby Alden paused. She could not justify herself even in her own
thoughts. By withholding what she knew of Hester's parentage, the
newspaper accounts of the death of the French woman, had been
misleading. This was one act of her life that gave her no satisfaction
in thinking over. She put it from her mind and in nervous haste, passed
the other articles of clothing to Hester.

"I've saved even her shoes. You see what a little foot she had. Your
mother was a very pretty woman, Hester. Of course, I saw her only that
hour at dinner when she sat in the kitchen. She had dark eyes and hair
and a plump, round figure. You look like her, only there is a
difference. Your eyes are dark but they don't look as your mother's
did, and your mouth and expression are not as I remember hers to be."

Hester made no comment as she looked over the clothes. She was not at
all moved by the sight of these things. She w