l-meant offer, not
liking to have introduced and practised about her a thing of which she
had always had the strongest apprehensions.

The strangers were gone, and notwithstanding their having been the
inadvertent cause of strange and painful emotions, left the wish behind
them, that this meeting might not be the last. Charlotte now made use of
the beautiful weather to return visits in the neighborhood, which,
indeed, gave her work enough to do, seeing that the whole country round,
some from a real interest, some merely from custom, had been most
attentive in calling to inquire after her. At home her delight was the
sight of the child, and really it well deserved all love and interest.
People, saw in it a wonderful, indeed a miraculous child; the brightest,
sunniest little face; a fine, well-proportioned body, strong and
healthy; and what surprised them more, the double resemblance, which
became more and more conspicuous. In figure and in the features of the
face, it was like the Captain; the eyes every day it was less easy to
distinguish from the eyes of Ottilie.

Ottilie herself, partly from this remarkable affinity, perhaps still
more under the influence of that sweet woman's feeling which makes them
regard with the most tender affection the offspring, even by another, of
the man they love, was as good as a mother to the little creature as it
grew, or rather, she was a second mother of another kind. If Charlotte
was absent, Ottilie remained alone with the child and the nurse. Nanny
had for some time past been jealous of the boy for monopolizing the
entire affections of her mistress; she had left her in a fit of
crossness, and gone back to her mother. Ottilie would carry the child
about in the open air, and by degrees took longer and longer walks with
it, carrying a bottle of milk to give the child its food when it wanted
any. Generally, too, she took a book with her; and so with the child in
her arms, reading and wandering, she made a very pretty Penserosa.

CHAPTER XII

The object of the campaign was attained, and Edward, with crosses and
decorations, was honorably dismissed. He betook himself at once to the
same little estate, where he found exact accounts of his family waiting
for him, on whom all this time, without their having observed it or
known of it, a sharp watch had been kept under his orders. His quiet
residence looked most sweet and pleasant when he reached it. In
accordance with his orders,