with some fresh eggs and a morsel of golden butter,
wherefrom she prepared a toothsome supper, the fragrance of which
presently aroused the famished sufferer, so that she opened her
eyes feebly, and smiled, and kissed Miss Wimple's hand when she
came to draw her nearer to the table. Then Madeline ate,--not
heartily, but enough to comfort her; and very soon her head fell
back upon the pillow, and she would have slept in the chair again,
holding Miss Wimple's hand. But Miss Wimple arose and took the sheets
from the cot, and, having warmed them by the fire, made up the bed
afresh,--a most smooth, sweet, and comfortable nest; and, raising
Madeline in her arms, supporting her still sleeping head upon her
shoulder, she very tenderly and skilfully removed her garments, all
coarse and torn, soiled and damp, and clad her afresh in pure
night-clothes of her own. But first--for Madeline began to shiver,
and her teeth had chattered slightly--Miss Wimple untied her own
warm petticoat of quilted silk, that for comfort and for decency
had been her best friend through the hard winter,--wherefore it
was most dearly prized and ingeniously saved,--and put it upon
Madeline, whom then she led, almost carrying her, as one may lead a
worn-out and already slumbering child, to the nest, and laid her
gently there, drawing the covering snugly about her, and spreading
the faithful shawl over all. And all the while, not a word had been
spoken by either;--with one, it was the silence of pious carefulness,
--with the other, of newly-found safety and perfect rest. Then
Miss Wimple placed the lamp on the floor behind the door, fed the
stove with fresh sticks, and with her feet on the little iron hearth,
and her head resting on her knees, thought there all night.

All night poor Madeline's slumber was broken by incoherent mutterings,
convulsive starts, and, more than once, a fearful cry; and when the
day dawned, she suddenly sat erect, stared wildly about her, and
raved. A fierce, though brief, fever had seized her; she was
delirious, and knew not where she was. When Miss Wimple would have
soothed her, tenderly caressing, and promising her a sister's
kindness and protection,--a home safely guarded from intrusion,--
Madeline assailed her savagely, bidding her be off, with her smooth
treachery, her pretty lies.

"'Sister!'--devil! Do I not know what a hell your 'home' is?--and as
for 'safety,' shall I seek that among snakes? Oh, I am sick of all
of yo