Kaituna pushed her thick hair wearily off her forehead, and sighed deeply. "I cannot help looking sad," she replied, listlessly; "I feel sad. A few months ago and I was so happy; now everything is taken away from me." "Not everything, dear. You have still me." "You!" echoed Kaituna, with a wan smile, taking the elder woman's hand. "Ah, Mrs. Belswin, what should I have done without you, my good angel!" "Don't call me a good angel, dear," said Mrs. Belswin, hurriedly. "I am not good. God help me! had I been good things would have been different." "I don't know what you refer to," replied Kaituna, simply, stroking the hand she held. "All I know is that you have been good to me. Without you I should have died. You are my only friend." "You forget Archie," said Mrs. Belswin, with an attempt at lightness. "No; I don't forget him, good, kind fellow; but, Mrs. Belswin, I cannot hold him to his promise. I am poor now. It will be unfair for me to drag him down. I must go away. I cannot stay to be a burden on you--a burden on him. You must let me go." "Where?" asked Mrs. Belswin, quietly. "I don't know. I will get the position of governess somewhere. Mrs. Valpy will recommend me. She knows what I can do." "Then you wish to leave me?" said Mrs. Belswin, reproachfully. "No, I do not; but how can I ask you to keep me like this? You--a stranger!" "A stranger!" said Mrs. Belswin, with a strange smile. "My dear, you must not look upon me as a stranger. I told you my story once--about my little child. Now you stand to me in that child's place. I love you like a daughter! If you left me I should go mad. Leave me! No, Kaituna, you must not--you shall not leave me. Promise that you will always stay beside me!" The vehemence of the woman frightened Kaituna, unnerved as she was by what she had gone through, and she shrank back in alarm. "Dear Mrs. Belswin----" "Oh!" cried the woman, walking up and down the room with tears streaming down her face, "for you to go away--to leave me, after all that I have suffered. You do not know what you say. You call me a stranger. I am a stranger. Yes! I am Mrs. Belswin, who was your hired servant. But I love you, Kaituna, like a daughter. You will not leave me--oh, my child, you will not leave me?" She flung herself on her knees beside the girl, and looked up into her eyes with a fierce intensity of gaze that moved the girl strangely. "No, I will not leave you, since you wish me not to," she said gently; "but indeed, Mrs. Belswin, I don't deserve such love."