tle,--I cannot speak long. It was a stormy
day, and few boats would go out. However, there was on the beach a woman
who was also very eager to catch the vessel. Together they managed to
get a boat, and embarked--this lady I speak of--the woman and a little
girl."

Agatha listened with painful avidity.

"It was not the woman's own child, or she could not have been so
careless of it It was tossed into the bottom of the boat, and lay there
crying. The lady felt sorry for it, and took it in her arms. They had
gone but a little way from the shore when it was playing about her,
quite happy again. While playing--she looking at the ship, and not
watching the little thing as she ought to have done--the child fell
overboard."

A loud sob burst from Agatha.

"Hush, still hush, my darling! The child was saved. The ship sailed
away, but the child--you _know_ that she was saved. I am thankful to God
it was so!"

Anne wrapped her arms tightly round the sobbing girl, and after a few
moments she also wept.

"I remember it all now," cried Agatha, as soon as she found words--"the
shore, the headlands, the bay. I was that little child, and it was you
who saved me!"

Anne made no answer but by pressing her closer.

"I felt it the first moment I ever saw you. I never forgot you--never!
But how did you know me?"

"Was I likely ever to lose sight of that little child? And also, years
before, I had once or twice met your father--though this would have
been nothing. But from that day I felt that you belonged to me. And now,
since you are become a Harper, you do."

Agatha embraced her, and then suddenly looked mournful.--"But yourself?
Tell me, did you ever again meet your--your friend?"

No answer. A slight movement of the lips sufficed to explain the whole.

"And it was all through me," cried Agatha, to whom that soft smile was
agony. "And what have I done in requital? I have lived a useless, erring
life; I have suffered--oh, how I have suffered! Far better I had been
left lying at the bottom of that quiet bay. Why did God let you save
me?"

"That you might grow up a good and noble woman, fulfilling worthily the
life He spared, and giving it back into His hands, in His time, as a
true and faithful servant. Dare not to murmur at His will--dare not to
ask why He saved you, Agatha Harper."

Saying this, as sternly as Anne Valery could speak--she tried to put
Agatha from her breast, but the girl held her too fast.

"Oh, do not