the nursery, and there, seizing
Dorothy, frantically kissed her; then, holding her at arm's length, she
gazed with a piercing inquisitiveness into the girl's lineaments. She
sighed deeply, abandoned the wondering Dorothy, and hastened away.

She had seen there not only her husband's traits, which she had often
beheld before, but others, of the shade, shape, and expression which
characterized those of her new neighbour.

Then this poor lady perceived the whole perturbing sequence of things,
and asked herself how she could have been such a walking piece of
simplicity as not to have thought of this before. But she did not stay
long upbraiding herself for her shortsightedness, so overwhelmed was she
with misery at the spectacle of herself as an intruder between these. To
be sure she could not have foreseen such a conjuncture; but that did not
lessen her grief. The woman who had been both her husband's bliss and
his backsliding had reappeared free when he was no longer so, and she
evidently was dying to claim her own in the person of Dorothy, who had
meanwhile grown to be, to Lady Mottisfont, almost the only source of each
day's happiness, supplying her with something to watch over, inspiring
her with the sense of maternity, and so largely reflecting her husband's
nature as almost to deceive her into the pleasant belief that she
reflected her own also.

If there was a single direction in which this devoted and virtuous lady
erred, it was in the direction of over-submissiveness. When all is said
and done, and the truth told, men seldom show much self-sacrifice in
their conduct as lords and masters to helpless women bound to them for
life, and perhaps (though I say it with all uncertainty) if she had
blazed up in his face like a furze-faggot, directly he came home, she
might have helped herself a little. But God knows whether this is a true
supposition; at any rate she did no such thing; and waited and prayed
that she might never do despite to him who, she was bound to admit, had
always been tender and courteous towards her; and hoped that little
Dorothy might never be taken away.

By degrees the two households became friendly, and very seldom did a week
pass without their seeing something of each other. Try as she might, and
dangerous as she assumed the acquaintanceship to be, Lady Mottisfont
could detect no fault or flaw in her new friend. It was obvious that
Dorothy had been the magnet which had drawn the Contes