[CHAPTER XVIII.]
"THAT WHICH WAS LOST."
ADA gradually recovered; but still seemed not to wish to get up.
Christina remained with them during this time, and they hardly knew how much her presence lightened the gloom of their fresh sorrow.
She took the little girls, Nellie, and often Arthur, for a daily walk, and sometimes would persuade them into a short omnibus ride, and a walk in the park with her. Though they felt as if they could not bear to go, they yet came back refreshed and strengthened; and Christina was well repaid for her trouble, if trouble it could be called, when she saw the little girls looking happy, and Nellie's pale face relapse into a smile.
One day she told them she was going to make a call, and asked them if they would wait for her an hour; and if she did not come back to them in that time, would they return home.
"It is some one I do not know, Nellie; but when I come back, I will tell you about it; not just now. It is to the mother of that little boy I have, little Charlie Wood."
"Are you going to see her?" asked Arthur.