'Yes,' said Elizabeth; 'Papa wished it, and I am sure I am very glad they let me go.'
No more was spoken till Helen began again. 'When I was at Dykelands, Mrs. Staunton used often to talk to me about our mother, and I began to try to recollect her, but I had only an impression of something kind, some voice I should know again, but I could not remember her in the least.'
'Ah! I wish you could,' said Elizabeth thoughtfully.
'I suppose you remember her quite well,' said Helen, 'and all that happened?'
'Yes,' said Elizabeth, 'I remember some things as well as if they had happened yesterday, and others are all confusion in my mind; I quite remember going to kiss her, the last day, and how strange and silent and sad all the room looked, and Aunt Anne keeping quite calm and composed in the room, but beginning to cry as soon as she had led me out. I shall never forget the awful mysterious feelings I had then.'
'And could she speak to you?' said Helen; 'did she know you?'
'Yes, she gave me one of her own smiles, and said something in a very low voice.'
'Tell me a little more, Lizzie,' said Helen, 'for I have thought very much about her lately. Can you remember her before she was ill?'
'Oh yes,' said Elizabeth, speaking slowly, and pausing now and then; 'I remember her well; I sometimes fancy I can hear her voice and her step at night, when she used to come up to the nursery to see us in bed. I always used to listen for her; and when she began to grow weak, and could not come up so many stairs, I used to lie and cry for half an hour. And now, when I am reading the same books with the children that I read with her, things that she said to me come back upon me.'
'Do you think,' said Helen, 'that you are as like her as Uncle Edward once said you were?'