All the villagers knew the sorrowful story of the Widow Aber’s waiting so trustfully for “Tommy,” her sailor son that could never come back, and they were good to Hannah that Winter. The girl had not cast her bread upon the waters in vain. When she found herself weak and faint a dozen hands were ready with some kind office, and there was little left for her to do about the house. Those bitter months as they waxed and waned were one long, mute agony, but the girl did not break down under the terrible strain. Trouble does not kill the young; thin and pale she grew, but strong in her youth, stronger in her love, for Miriam’s sake, and with something of Miriam’s early nature, she kept her grief crushed within her heart. She seldom went out of the house now. She staid always with her mother, as if fearful to leave her for an hour; and those who went to the house from the village, told how dreadful it was to see her sitting quietly, even sometimes forcing a smile to her trembling lips when the widow would say,— “Do not look so sad, Hannah. I am strong and well, are you not glad? He said he liked to see me smile, and he must find us bright and cheerful when he comes in the Spring.” The Spring! Hannah hardly dared to think what might happen then. Every day, as she watched her mother, the dread upon her grew stronger. She would have held back the coming of the Nereid, the beautiful Nereid, that now, with its white wings, might return only as the angel of death to Miriam. She would understand it all then, and the shock, the dreadful shock! It was the terror of this that haunted Hannah day and night. The last winter month had gone by, and the chilly winds of March were whistling along the coast, when, one morning, old Steve came hurriedly up the hill to the house. He brought the news that Hannah had so long dreaded. The Nereid was even then heading round the cliff. She had asked him to let her know in time, that she might keep it from her mother, at least till after the boat had landed. But while he was in the very act of telling, he stopped suddenly, and a look of fright came over his face. Hannah turned to find the cause, and saw her mother standing in the open doorway. She had overheard it all. The girl’s heart sank in her breast like a stone.