But this last straw was too much. I left Hannah. I went unsteadily-- yes, unsteadily--towards the door. I rushed upstairs, entered my own room, bolted myself in. I took my mother's miniature in my hands. I opened the case and pressed the miniature to my heart, flung myself on the bed face downwards, and sobbed and sobbed. No broken-hearted child in all the world could have sobbed more for her own mother than I did then. PART ONE, CHAPTER TWELVE. DISCUSSING THE NEW MOTHER. It was not I, after all, who told the boys Hannah was the person who gave them that piece of information. I did not come downstairs for the watery stew which she had prepared for them. Doubtless she would tell the boys that I had swallowed the spirit of that stew and left them the poor material body. She would make the most of my conduct, for she was very angry with me. But by-and-by there came a knock at my door, and I heard Alex's voice, and he said, "Oh, do open the door and let me in! Please let me in, Rachel." He so seldom called me by that name that I got up, went to the door, and flung it open. Alex's face was very pale, and his hair was rumpled up over his forehead, but he had not been crying at all. I don't suppose boys do cry much; but the moment I glanced at him I knew that Hannah had told him. He took my hand. "My word," he said, "how cold you are! And I can scarcely see your eyes. You'll have a bad inflammation if you give way like this. Where's the use? Come along downstairs." He took my hand, and we raced down together. When we got down I clung to him and said, "Kiss me, Alex." "Why, of course I will, Dumps." He kissed me twice on my forehead, and I knew by the trembling of his lips that he was feeling things a good bit. "Hannah has told you?" I said. "She has. But she isn't coming upstairs again to-day." "What do you mean by that?" "Charley, you can explain to Dumps." Charley was standing by the fire. He was a very solidly made boy, not nearly so handsome as Alex, who was tall and slight, with regular features and beautiful eyes. Charley was in some respects like me, only very much better-looking. "Oh," said Charley, "she began talking in a way we couldn't stand about the Professor, so we just took her by the shoulders and brought her to the top of the stairs. She said she was going out, and wouldn't be back until to-night--or perhaps never." "Oh, you haven't turned her away?" I said; for although Hannah was very troublesome and most disagreeable, and was certainly the last person to conciliate the disturbed state of the household and bring peace out of disorder, I could not bear the idea of her not being there. "She'll come back, right enough. I tell you what it is, Dumps," said Alex; "we're--we're a bit stunned. Of course, it's rather awkward, isn't it?" "I don't know that it is," said Charley. "He could always do as he liked, couldn't he? I mean he never thought much about us, did he?"