“Oh, yes, yes, mamma.”
“Well, I am left without my daughter, but I remain with my husband. Think that I am happy also,” said Alice, feeling thankful to Providence from the bottom of her heart, that Elsie was “innocent of the knowledge” of General Garnet’s tyranny over herself.
Yet Elsie half suspected, she knew not what. She looked deeply, searchingly, for an instant into her
mother’s dark blue eyes, as if to read the secret of the deep sorrow in them.
But Alice dropped her long lashes, and averted her head.
Then Elsie took her hand, and bending round to look into her troubled face, said, slowly, earnestly, tearfully:
“You love my father dearly, very dearly; don’t you, mamma? Say, don’t you, mamma? Oh! don’t you, mamma?”
“Yes, Elsie, I love him,” said Alice, in a very low voice, turning again to her daughter.
“Oh, mamma, you love him as well as I love Magnus! Don’t you, mamma? Don’t you? You love him better than you love me, and you will be very happy with him even when I am gone? Say, mamma! Oh, tell me before I go.”
For an answer Alice stooped and kissed her daughter on the forehead.