“At last you were lost to me for a while,—I nursed my husband in his last sickness, but greatly to my delight you unexpectedly turned up again at the very house where my cousin Norah was living as lady’s maid,—at Oakwood, you know. I saw you there one evening when I was calling on Norah, and learned that you were Mrs. Sinclair’s companion, and was going abroad with her. As Norah, too, was to go with her mistress, I was certain to know when you returned, and I did, and saw you dressed for dinner one day, and thought you the most beautiful woman I ever saw. I was a widow then. My husband had been dead some time, but he had left me quite comfortable for a woman of my class, while Gertie’s annuity was sufficient for her. I was anxious that she should have a good education, and I tried to bring her up a lady so far as I knew myself. Just _what_ I intended to do, or whether I should ever let you know of her existence, had now become a matter of some doubt, for I loved the girl too well to part with her willingly. She was the very apple of my eye, and I said unless something happens to me, or her mother marries rich, I will keep the secret all my life. Still I liked to be near you,—to know just what you were doing, and so I applied to your mother for apartments, with what success you know. Then Colonel Schuyler came, and Norah told me of your probable marriage with him, and I had a great battle with duty and my love for little Gertie. The first told me that when you was in a position to do for the child what I never could, I ought to give her up, while the last said I never could; she was all the world to me, and I decided to keep her a spell at least, especially as through Norah it was so arranged that I was to go to America when you did. In any event I should have followed you after a while, and I thought it a special Providence which made my going with you so easy. You can imagine the interest I have felt in you and everything belonging to you, and how at times, when I saw my darling snubbed by the young ladies at the Hill, I have been tempted to claim her right to be there as their equal and companion.