"Everything is a passion with her," Belle replied. "If you had not adopted her and toned her down, and she had been left uneducated and unrestrained, she would have rushed headlong to destruction."
"I do not feel sure how she will come out in the end," said Mrs. Grey. "If anything happens to me I shall want you to look after her."
"Anything happen to you, mamma?" cried Belle; "do you think anything is going to happen? Why, it isn't living not to have a mother."
"In the nature of things you ought to outlive me, my child. And it is well to familiarize yourself to the thought."
Belle's eyes filled with tears.
"You know what Mabel's death has cost me," she said, "but it is nothing to what yours would."
"Well, my dear," said Mrs. Grey, trying to smile away this almost reproachful tone, "I do not expect to die at present, and may live to be a trial to you all. I hope not, though. I should like to live as long as I can work for Christ; not longer, nevertheless not my will."
"Nor mine!" said Belle. "I spoke in a cowardly moment, dreading any more suffering. It was most ungrateful after all God's goodness to me."
Margaret now came in with a photograph of Mabel she had been coloring.