The stimulant had already commenced to put a little sign of warmth and life into her; the misery in her expression was breaking a little. "She was my first baby, you know," she said, "and her father thought her the most wonderful thing in the world. He used to walk up and down with her for hours at a time, and the old nurse I had was _so_ angry with him!... She said it was such a bad habit. But I loved to see him with that little creature in his arms; he was so gentle with it.... And then to think that he could forget her, turn away and leave her!... It does not seem so bad that he should have forgotten me," she said. She spoke dreamily. There was a long pause. Caroline still chafed the small feet. "You wonder, perhaps, why I asked for Betty," Camilla said in a low voice. "I love them both just the same, but Betty belonged to the beginning. Her father never saw Baby; poor little Baby! I wonder would he have stayed if he had seen her?" "You are warm now," said Caroline, brightly; "do let me help you into bed. You will feel so much better there, and the children will keep you warm. Won't they be surprised when they wake up and find themselves in your bed?" The smile that came into Mrs. Lancing's eyes was very pleasant to the girl kneeling beside her to see. Her heart began to beat a little less nervously. The fear and the uneasiness began to slip from her. When she would have got up Camilla held her back a moment. "You have been so good to me," she said in a broken way, "and you give me such a sense of strength, of comfort. How angry nurse would have been if I had disturbed her as I have disturbed you! Dennis is right. I have never had any one about me like you before." Caroline smiled. There was a great sweetness in her face. To the woman looking at her she had still that spiritual touch about her, and yet she was human, human in the most exquisite meaning of the word. "Do let me help you to undress.... I am sure you ought to be in bed," she urged. She got her way, and a little later, after she had tended Camilla as if she had been a tired child, she stood and looked at the mother nestling down in the bed between those two small slumbering forms, and the sight brought tears to her eyes. "I am going to stay a little while in case you want me," she whispered. Camilla heard her as in a dream. The hot agony had passed from her heart and a sense of exhaustion fell upon her; she lay with a hand touching each of her children, and Caroline moved about the room softly, putting it tidy. She picked up the lace gown from the floor; she laid it and the magnificent wrap on the couch. The fire lit up the room with a warm, ruddy glow. Caroline put some more coals on noiselessly. By the firelight she saw the scattered jewels and gathered them together; then she put the letters in a pile, with Colonel Lancing's at the bottom. When all was done she paused and listened quite a long time. Mrs. Lancing never moved; she had fallen asleep.