"You see, I can't help the Belgians with money," she remarked frankly, "so I'm glad to find any little thing to do for them that I can. This poor child's father was a soldier who was killed early in the war."
"Has she a mother?" asked Josephine.
"Oh, yes! And there are two children younger than herself, and an old grandmother—all refugees from Louvain."
The little Belgian girl could not understand what was being said, but she understood the kind glances cast at her. Donald gave her a packet of sweets he had bought in the town. She flushed with pleasure as she took it, and thanked him in English; then, turning to Miss Cummings, spoke a few quick words in her native tongue.
"What does she say?" asked Donald, as the governess smiled and nodded.
"That she will share the sweets with her little sister and brother," was the reply.
"That's right!" said May. "Oh, Miss Cummings, we haven't told you our news yet! Captain Basset's coming to-morrow! Josephine and Uncle John are going to meet him at the railway station! It's all arranged. His new servant—Warner—is coming with him. Warner is accustomed to look after blind people, for he used to be an attendant in a blind institution."
Josephine winced. She was not yet able to think of her father as sightless without suffering a pang of pain. Sudden tears filled her eyes, but she blinked them away, and bit her quivering lip.
"He is going to teach Captain Basset to read Braille," May continued, "and, oh, isn't it wonderful, Josephine has actually had a few lines from her father himself?"
"I will show you the letter sometime, Miss Cummings, but I haven't it with me, I put it away safely before I left home," Josephine said. She had quickly regained her composure. "I mean to keep it always," she added; "I shall treasure it as long as I live."