"You forget Archie," said Mrs. Belswin, with an attempt at lightness.
"No; I don't forget him, good, kind fellow; but, Mrs. Belswin, I cannot hold him to his promise. I am poor now. It will be unfair for me to drag him down. I must go away. I cannot stay to be a burden on you--a burden on him. You must let me go."
"Where?" asked Mrs. Belswin, quietly.
"I don't know. I will get the position of governess somewhere. Mrs. Valpy will recommend me. She knows what I can do."
"Then you wish to leave me?" said Mrs. Belswin, reproachfully.
"No, I do not; but how can I ask you to keep me like this? You--a stranger!"
"A stranger!" said Mrs. Belswin, with a strange smile. "My dear, you must not look upon me as a stranger. I told you my story once--about my little child. Now you stand to me in that child's place. I love you like a daughter! If you left me I should go mad. Leave me! No, Kaituna, you must not--you shall not leave me. Promise that you will always stay beside me!"
The vehemence of the woman frightened Kaituna, unnerved as she was by what she had gone through, and she shrank back in alarm.
"Dear Mrs. Belswin----"
"Oh!" cried the woman, walking up and down the room with tears streaming down her face, "for you to go away--to leave me, after all that I have suffered. You do not know what you say. You call me a stranger. I am a stranger. Yes! I am Mrs. Belswin, who was your hired servant. But I love you, Kaituna, like a daughter. You will not leave me--oh, my child, you will not leave me?"