He thought for a moment.
"I will," he said.
Hester left him and sent Amy to him. In a few minutes she returned. She had wept, but was now, though looking very sad, quite self-possessed.
"Please, miss," she said—but Hester interrupted her.
"You must not call me miss, Amy," she said. "You must call me Hester. Am I not your sister?"
A gleam of joy shot from the girl's eyes, like the sun through red clouds.
"Then you have forgiven me!" she cried, and burst into tears.
"No, Amy, not that! I should have had to know something to forgive first. You may have been foolish; everybody can't always be wise, though everybody must try to do right. But now we must have time to set things straighter, without doing more mischief, and you mustn't mind staying a little while with Miss Dasomma."
"Does she know all about it, miss—-Hester?" asked Amy; and as she called her new sister by her name, the blood rushed over her face.
"She knows enough not to think unfairly of you, Amy."