"My dear, you will not be allowed to do that. An occasional visit is all that is permitted."
"An occasional visit to my sick mother!" cried Margaret; "I should like to see them undertake to separate us! I would tear them to pieces first!"
Mrs. Grey remained silent, and Margaret ran furiously on till the silence struck and checked her.
"We will get your mother safely into a hospital, or what is as good as a hospital, without tearing anyone to pieces. A room is all ready for her, and there you shall take care of her."
"Oh, Mrs. Grey, it is impossible. We haven't nearly enough to justify our taking a room."
"How would this plan suit you, then? Suppose your mother enters a hospital where I know she will be kindly treated, and I give you a home with me? You would be here exactly as if you were my own child, could be well educated, and surrounded by all the refinements of life. Look around you. This beautiful room, with its luxuries, would be yours; you would have books, pictures, everything you wanted."
Margaret looked as she was bidden, and at one glance took in all the charms of the spot. Then rising scornfully to her feet, she burst into tears, jerking out the words in jets of indignation:
"That I should live to be bribed to forsake my dying mother! Now I am degraded!"
Mrs. Grey's experiment was a success. For that it was only an experiment the sagacious reader has at once divined.