l, Mama. I have no means of knowing. Dear Mama!' cried
Florence, clinging to her as for help, and hiding her face upon her
bosom, 'I know that you have seen--'

'Stay! Stop, Florence.' Edith turned so pale, and spoke so earnestly,
that Florence did not need her restraining hand upon her lips. 'Tell me
all about Walter first; let me understand this history all through.'

Florence related it, and everything belonging to it, even down to the
friendship of Mr Toots, of whom she could hardly speak in her distress
without a tearful smile, although she was deeply grateful to him. When
she had concluded her account, to the whole of which Edith, holding her
hand, listened with close attention, and when a silence had succeeded,
Edith said:

'What is it that you know I have seen, Florence?'

'That I am not,' said Florence, with the same mute appeal, and the same
quick concealment of her face as before, 'that I am not a favourite
child, Mama. I never have been. I have never known how to be. I have
missed the way, and had no one to show it to me. Oh, let me learn from
you how to become dearer to Papa Teach me! you, who can so well!' and
clinging closer to her, with some broken fervent words of gratitude and
endearment, Florence, relieved of her sad secret, wept long, but not as
painfully as of yore, within the encircling arms of her new mother.

Pale even to her lips, and with a face that strove for composure until
its proud beauty was as fixed as death, Edith looked down upon the
weeping girl, and once kissed her. Then gradually disengaging herself,
and putting Florence away, she said, stately, and quiet as a marble
image, and in a voice that deepened as she spoke, but had no other token
of emotion in it:

'Florence, you do not know me! Heaven forbid that you should learn from
me!'

'Not learn from you?' repeated Florence, in surprise.

'That I should teach you how to love, or be loved, Heaven forbid!' said
Edith. 'If you could teach me, that were better; but it is too late. You
are dear to me, Florence. I did not think that anything could ever be so
dear to me, as you are in this little time.'

She saw that Florence would have spoken here, so checked her with her
hand, and went on.

'I will be your true friend always. I will cherish you, as much, if not
as well as anyone in this world could. You may trust in me--I know it
and I say it, dear,--with the whole confidence even of your pure heart.
There are hosts of women w