uch a surprise. My little girl is always with me while I dress.
I have so little time to devote to them; but I snatch every moment."

She sighed as she spoke, and I began to understand, in a dim, groping
sort of way, that fate is not so unequal after all, that even this
beautiful creature had unsatisfied wants in her life, that it was
possible that wealth and position were to her only tiresome barriers
dividing her from her little ones. Her sweetest pleasures only came to
her by snatches. Most likely she envied humble mothers, and did not pity
them because their arms ached with carrying a heavy infant, aching limbs
being more bearable than an aching heart.

A flight of broad, handsomely-carpeted stairs brought us to a long
shut-in corridor, fitted up prettily with plants and statuettes. A
rocking-horse stood in one corner; the nursery door was open. It was a
long, cheerful room, with three windows, looking over the public garden,
and fitted up with a degree of comfort that bordered on luxury. Some
canaries were singing in a green cage, a grey Persian kitten was curled
up in the doll's bassinette, a little girl was kneeling on the cushioned
window-seat, peeping between the bars at some children who were playing
below. As Mrs. Morton said, softly, "Joyce, darling," she turned round
with quite a startled air, and then clambered down hastily and ran to
her mother.

"Why, it is my mother," in quite an incredulous voice, and then she
caught hold of her mother's gown, and peeped at me from between the
folds.

She was a pretty, demure-looking child, only somewhat thin and fragile
in appearance, not in the least like her mother, but I could trace
instantly the strongest resemblance to her father. She had the straight,
uncurling hair like his, and her dark eyes were a little sunken under
the finely-arched brows. It was rather a bewitching little face, only
too thin and sallow for health, and with an intelligent expression,
almost amounting to precocity.

"And where is your brother, my darling?" asked her mother, stooping to
kiss her, and at this moment a pleasant-looking young woman came from
the inner room with a small, curly-haired boy in her arms.

As she set him down on the floor, and he came toddling over the carpet,
I forgot Mrs. Morton's presence, and knelt down and held out my arms to
him. "Oh, you beauty!" I exclaimed, in a coaxing voice, "will you come
to me?" for I quite forgot myself at the sight of the perfect