had been brought to her from whom
she was so loth to part that she knew not how to go when her husband
came for her in his cart. He was a farmer, comfortably off, though very
homely, and there were plenty of children at home, so that she had been
ill spared to remain at the Park till Aurelia's arrival. Thus she took
the opportunity of going away while the little one was asleep.

Aurelia asked where she lived now. At Sedhurst, in the next parish, she
was told; but she would not accept a promise that her charge should soon
be brought to visit her. "Better not, ma'am, thank you all the same,
not till she's broke in. She'll pine the less if she don't see nor hear
nothing about the old place, nor Daddy and Sally and Davie. If you
bring her soon, you'll never get her away again. That's the worst of a
nurse-child. I was warned. It just breaks your heart!"

So away went the good foster-mother sobbing; and Aurelia's charge began.
Fay claimed her instantly to explore the garden and house. The child had
been sent home alone on the sudden illness of her nurse, and had been
very forlorn, so that her cousin's attention was a great boon to her.
Hope was incited to come out; but Jenny Bowles kept a jealous watch over
her, and treated every one else as an enemy; and before Aurelia's
hat was on, came the terrible woe of Amoret's awakening. Her sobs and
wailings for her mammy were entirely beyond the reach of Aurelia's
soothings and caresses, and were only silenced by Molly's asseveration
that the black man was at the door ready to take her into the dark room.
That this was no phantom was known to the poor child, and was a lurking
horror to Aurelia herself. No wonder that the little thing clung to her
convulsively, and would not let her hand go for the rest of the day,
every now and then moaning out entreaties to go home to mammy.

With the sad little being hanging to her hand, Aurelia was led by Fay
round their new abiding place. The house was of brick, shaped like the
letter H, Dutch, and with a tall wing, at each end of the main body,
projecting, and finishing in fantastic gables edged with stone. One
of these square wings was appropriated to Aurelia and her charges, the
other to the recluse Mr. Belamour. The space that lay between the two
wings, on the garden front, was roofed over, and paved with stone,
descending in several broad shallow steps at the centre and ends,
guarded at each angle by huge carved eagles, the crest of the bu