“Let us hope so,” said the old woman, dryly; then she added, with some spirit, “As for Mr. Delaney being an old croaker, Miss Rodney, he is not old, let me tell you. He is only a little past thirty. I nursed him when he was a baby.” “Did you, really, Mrs. Griffin? How strange!” cried Aline, trying to realize the fact that Mr. Delaney had ever been a baby. She looked at Mrs. Griffin meditatively a moment, and, as a vision of the tall, handsome man in bibs and long skirts came before her mind’s eye, she burst out laughing. “Well, I never saw such a child--crying one moment, laughing the next!” cried Mrs. Griffin, offended at her levity. “Don’t be angry, nurse. I was only laughing at the idea of that stern, dark man ever being a baby. Tell me, did you really nurse him? And was he a pretty baby? And was his mamma very fond of him?” cried volatile Aline. “His mamma died when he was born, Miss Rodney. She was as young as you are, I believe, but she had a vast deal more dignity than you have,” Mrs. Griffin said, reprovingly. “I have no dignity at all. I have heard that every day of my life, and I am eighteen years old,” said Aline, rather soberly; “and this poor young mother who died so sadly, Mrs. Griffin, was she a pretty girl?” “How you do fly from one subject to another, miss!” cried Mrs. Griffin. “Yes, she was very beautiful. But, my dear, I don’t think that Mr. Delaney would like for me to discuss his family affairs with a stranger. Suppose you shut your eyes and go to sleep. You have had too much excitement already.” Aline could be a very sweet, obedient child when it pleased her to be so. She relapsed into one of those gracious moods now. She nestled her dark head down upon the pillow and obediently closed her eyes. But she was not asleep, although the grim nurse “laid that flattering unction to her soul.” She was busily thinking. “So Mr. Delaney saved my life,” she was saying to herself. “Why did he not tell me? I might not have been quite so abominable to him then. What a little wretch he must think me! I am sorry his mother died when he was a baby! I don’t think I should have had a very pleasant life if my mamma had died like that, even though she scolds me and punishes me sometimes.” She was unconsciously penitent for all her rudeness and anger toward Mr. Delaney. He had saved her life. That was a great boon in Aline’s eyes. She was young and fair, and life was very sweet. “I should not have been quite so bad if only I had known,” she repeated to herself. “I will be kinder to him after this. I do not want him to think me a little heathen. But he should not keep me here against my will. He must know that I want to go home!” While she lay thus apparently sleeping, but in reality busily thinking, the nurse watched her anxiously. She believed that the girl was asleep, but she did not like to see the bright, warm color that began to burn fitfully on the fair cheek beneath the long, dark fringe of the lashes.