"You shall do as you like, mamma," said Aldyth, deftly removing her mother's bonnet and mantle. "I will bring you something to eat here, if you would rather."
"Yes, dear, much rather," Mrs. Stanton said.
And hastily removing her own things, Aldyth went down stairs to arrange a tray for her mother with the food most likely to tempt her appetite.
Miss Lorraine watched her as she set about the task, and was struck with the bright, happy look the girl's face wore.
"You look very happy, Aldyth," she said. "You are very glad to have your mother in your home."
"I am happy," replied Aldyth, with a sweet, glad smile, "and it is home now."
Miss Lorraine had a fleeting sense of discontent. She wondered what her uncle Stephen would have felt if he could have foreseen this result of Aldyth's inheritance, and smiled to think that, had such an idea occurred to him, he would assuredly have left Wyndham to Guy. She could imagine her uncle passing at midnight as a restless ghost through the old hall and groaning at the sight of the huge trunks, belonging to Mrs. Stanton and Gladys, which had just arrived in a cart from the station, and were piled up in the hall, till they could be emptied of their contents and consigned to the lumber room.
"Ah, me!" she reflected, sagely. "It is well we cannot know what is to come after us, and really it is time there was some fresh life about the old place."
[CHAPTER XXIV.]
A SECRET SORROW.