"I mean that I am going to take you to my home if you will go, and let you have your little Louis with you there."
The woman caught her hand and kissed it passionately. Then with quick alarm she asked, "But madam—the lady? Would she be willing for him to come to me?"
Margaret smiled. "She will be willing."
Another fear assailed the mother.
"Perhaps she will not want to take him when she knows his mother's sin."
"She will hold him all the more tenderly because of what his mother has suffered."
"Ah! is she then so good? so kind?"
"She is not very good," said Margaret, smiling down at her, "but to your boy she promises she will never be anything but kind. My poor girl, will you trust her?"
A sudden light broke upon the sick woman.
"You?" she cried. "You?—who heard it all, and took my hand—and understood? You?"