f, _yes, no, yes, no_--and they said _no_! The
sweet face fell, and I hurried to comfort her.

"Maybe they always say no hereabouts," says I. "Let me have a try!"
And I asked the same question, but it came _yes_, and that I knew must
be true, though she did not.

The next day, after she had made a speech like the Queen's (I thought)
and every one wondering, with her so young, and a hundred dollars
pledged, and all so eager to work under her--for she was one of them
that's born to lead--who should run in but Henry Wilson, all out of
breath, crying to her to hurry home, for Madam was down with a stroke,
and one side of her all powerless!

Well, to make a long story short, she never left her poor aunt for
above an hour at a time till the fighting was over! Madam, who had
never seemed overfond before, was mad for her now, and she was pushing
her chair or reading to her or stroking her hand or playing old tunes
or sitting in sight, the livelong day. They tried the sea and they
tried the mountains and there was a nurse and a maid, but it was always
Miss Lisbet behind it all. She was rich, she had real French convent
lace on her body-linen, and asparagus and peaches in winter, and a
conservatory as big as a house, oh, yes. But she was more tied down
than many a poor girl 'prenticed for her living, and I often wonder if
it's not that way with many of the rich ladies you see! I know I was
working hard with a dressmaker the first year--before they kept me as
seamstress and mender at The Cedars--and _I_ wouldn't have changed with
her, except for love of her, poor dear!

I was back in The Cedars when Madam went off in her sleep one night as
easy as a baby. There was no need for grieving--'twas a blessed
release, and just the soberness and the thoughts that must come to one
when even an old body of eighty-odd passes away. Poor old Madam hadn't
many friends, for everybody was so afraid of her, and we all felt the
best that ever she'd done was to leave the lonely old place to Miss
Lisbet. Master Dick was coming home, for the war was over, and the
black men freed at last, and he was full captain, and never a scratch
or a headache even, to show for the four years!

We were in the garden waiting for him, she as lovely as ever I'd seen
her in a white dress, all frilled from the waist down, with violet
ribbons (Madam made her vow never to wear black for her) and a violet
band in her hair. She'd a great brooch of amethyst st