other, dearest mother, I
have come home to you. Open the door and let me in!'"

"It was a dream, Nurse," said Flora.

"But supposing, Mrs. Lyndsay, that it was a dream. Is it less strange
that such a dream should occur at the very moment, perhaps, that he was
drowned; and that his mother should fancy she heard him speak as well as
I?"

"True," said Flora, "the mystery remains the same, and, for my own part,
I never could get rid of a startling reality; because some people choose
to call it a mere coincidence. My faith embraces the spirit of the fact,
and disclaims the coincidence, though after all, the coincidence is the
best proof of the fact."

"This event," continued Nurse, "cast a shadow over my life, which no
after sunshine ever dispelled. I never loved again, and gave up all
thoughts of getting married from that hour. Perhaps I was wrong, for I
refused several worthy men, who would have given me a comfortable home;
and I should not now, at my time of life, have to go out nursing, or be
dependent upon a cross brother, for the shelter of a roof. If you will
take me to Canada with you, I only ask in return a home in my old age."

Flora was delighted with the project, but on writing about it to her
husband, she found him unwilling to take out a feeble old woman, who was
very likely to die on the voyage; and Flora, with reluctance, declined
the good woman's offer.

It happened very unfortunately for Flora, that her mother had in her
employment a girl, whose pretty feminine face and easy pliable manners,
had rendered her a great favourite in the family. Whenever Flora visited
the Hall, Hannah had taken charge of the baby, on whom she lavished the
most endearing epithets and caresses.

This girl had formed an imprudent intimacy with a farm servant in the
neighbourhood, which had ended in her seduction. Her situation rendered
marriage a matter of necessity. In this arrangement of the matter, it
required both parties should agree; and the man, who doubtless knew more
of the girl's real character than her benevolent mistress, flatly
refused to make her his wife. Hannah, in an agony of rage and
contrition, had confided her situation to her mistress; and implored her
not to turn her from her doors, or she would end her misery in
self-destruction.

"She had no home," she said, "in the wide world--and she dared not
return to her aunt, who was the only friend she had; and who, under
existing circumstances, she well kne