If Nannie could have lived I know that my father would have sent for her to come back and that she, with you in her arms, would have nestled into her old place in her home. But Nannie died and father was crushed, heart-sick with the worst of sorrow, regret for a separation that death had made permanent. He was more than satisfied to leave you with the Bristeads; he died four years after Nannie’s death. I have always had in mind to look up Nannie’s child, but the years slipped away without doing it. I, too, have had my share of the pain of self-reproach that I thoughtlessly left my little sister to her fate. Thoughtlessly; not unkindly, I am glad to say, for I never shared father’s anger against Nannie. I heedlessly took for granted that she was where she had chosen to be and that it was no affair of mine. So you grew up a real little Beth Bristead, not knowing, as you said, that you had Cortlandt relatives, till this winter. At last I aroused to action and sent for you. Tell me, in your mother’s name, that my carelessness is forgiven. For we love you so much, Beth, dear child, that neither your Aunt Alida nor I, nor your cousins, for that matter, will ever again let you slip out of our grasp.” Beth kissed her uncle by way of an answer that she could not give in words. The sad story of her girl-mother’s brief life had been told so simply that she understood it, as far as any one, old or young, ever can understand what they have not lived through themselves. “Was it very wrong for my father and mother to disobey Grandfather Cortlandt and marry?” asked Beth at last. “Wrong, dear? Well, I am sure that they did not think so. I am certain that they believed that they loved each other so truly that it would have been wrong to act otherwise,” Mr. Cortlandt said. “But, yes, it was wrong, though I am confident they did not see it. I have two daughters of my own--and a niece!--and I should not be willing to let them take the chance of poverty. Older people see these things differently from romantic youngsters. Nannie and her lover ought, at least, to have waited till he had proved what he could do for her. They were young enough to afford to wait. But that is just why they could not wait; young people never think they can waste a year or so. It is only when there aren’t many years left that people begin to see that there is plenty of time. That is a contradiction which I do not expect you to understand, Bethikins! Ah, well! That story has had finis written against it this many a day! I am sure that Nannie was happy for the short time allowed her, and I doubt she was ever sorry that she braved all things for your father. In any case her marriage gave you to us, little Beth, so if the story that is finished has a sad ending, the sequel to it is the happiest one possible.” “Aunt Rebecca has tried very hard indeed to make me grow up properly,” said Beth, with the funny little gravity that was the result of this same “proper” growing up.