They set food before Milly, and let her rest and recover herself. The child won their hearts at once. It was clean, and healthy, and good to look at; and if Lettice had known that it was her own little niece she could not have taken to it more kindly. Perhaps, indeed, she would not have taken to it at all.
Lettice's visit had greatly excited Mrs. Bundlecombe, who had for some time past been in that precarious state in which any excitement, however slight, is dangerous. She was completely happy, because she had jumped to the conclusion that Lettice would henceforth do for Alan all that she herself would have done if she had been able, but which it was now impossible for her to do. And then it was as though the feeble vitality which remained to her had begun to ebb away from the moment when her need for keeping it had disappeared.
In the early morning, Lettice was roused from her sleep by the restlessness of her companion, and she sat up and looked at her.
"Dearie," said the old woman, in a whisper, "my time is come."
"No, no!" said Lettice, standing by her side. "Let me raise you a little on the pillow; you will feel better presently."
"Yes—better—in heaven! You will take care of my Alan?"
"Oh yes, dear!"
"And love him?"
"And love him."
"Thank God for that. It will be the saving of him. Call Martha, my dear!"