"I don’t feel a bit like eating," she mused, "but I reckon my appetite will come after I calm down. Let’s see now. I’ve got two whole days to wait before she gets back, and then the Lord above only knows what the news will be. Seems to me sorter like I’m on trial again. Nettie was too young to appear for or against me before, but now she’s on the stand. Yes, she’s the judge, jury, and all the rest put together. I almost wish I hadn’t let Mary Waycroft see I was willing. It may make me look like a weak, begging fool, and that’s something I’ve avoided all these years. But the game is worth the risk, humiliating as it may turn out. To be able to do something for my own flesh and blood would give me the first joy I’ve had in many a year. Lord, Lord, maybe she will consent, and then I’ll get some good out of all the means I’ve been piling up. Homely as they say she is, I’d like to fairly load her down till her finery would be the talk of the county, and shiftless Joe Boyd ’ud blush to see her rustle out in public. Maybe—I say _maybe_—nobody really knows what a woman will do—but maybe she’ll just up and declare to him that she’s coming back to me, where other things will match her outfit. Come back! how odd!—come back here where she used to toddle about and play with her tricks and toys, on the floor and in the yard. That would be a glorious vindication, and then—I don’t know, but maybe I’d learn to love her. I’m sure I’d feel grateful for it—even—even if it was my money and nothing else that brought her to me." X To Ann Boyd the period between Mrs. Waycroft’s departure and return was long and fraught with conflicting emotions. Strange, half-defined new hopes fluttered into existence like young birds in air that was too chill, and this state of mind was succeeded by qualms of doubt and fear not unlike the misgivings which had preceded the child’s birth; for it had been during that time of detachment from her little world that Ann’s life secret had assumed its gravest and most threatening aspect. And if she had not loved the child quite as much after it came as might have seemed natural, she sometimes ascribed the shortcoming to that morbid period which had been filled with lurking shadows and constantly whispered threats rather than the assurances of a blessed maternity.