"I understand—I shall be with you, always."
He replied uneasily, "I shall look after you—always."
"Yes, yes," she breathed. Her bosom heaved. "Always."
Then his very first impression of her as "a sort of white Topsy" recurred to him suddenly and flashed into speech.
"Mary Ann, I don't believe you know how you came into the world. I dare say you 'specs you growed."
"No, sir," said Mary Ann, gravely; "God made me."
That shook him strangely for a moment. But the canary sang on:—
"Sw-eet. Sw-w-w-w-w-eet."