"Oh, no," she said, laughing heartily, "I should know better than that. You're very poor, my darling auntie, but I love you all the same. We shall be rich some day, of course. It's all coming right, by-and-by."
Her hand was stroking my face, and I drew it to my lips and kissed it tenderly. I had scarcely realized before what a change had come over my circumstances.
"But I am not poor any longer, my little girl," I said; "I am rich now.".
"Very rich?" she asked, eagerly.
"Very rich," I repeated.
"And we shall never have to go walking, walking, till our feet are sore and tired? And we shall not be hungry, and be afraid of spending our money? And we shall buy new clothes as soon as the old ones are worn out? O Aunt Nelly, is it true? is it quite true?"
"It is quite true, my poor Minima," I answered.
She looked at me wistfully, with the color coming and going on her face. Then she climbed up, and lay down beside me, with her arm over me and her face close to mine.
"O Aunt Nelly!" she cried, "if this had only come while my father was alive!"
"Minima," I said, after her sobs and tears were ended, "you will always be my little girl. You shall come and live with me wherever I live."