"Dora Darling, the young lady who adopted her,—the one I told you of as living in Iowa."
"Yes, yes; and she has come all the way to bring my child to me! No,
I cannot wait: I will come with you."
So Mr. Burroughs, still sitting upon the piazza, saw his cousin hastening by, and came to join her.
"Yes, come, Tom! come to-oh, to see Sunshine again!" and Mrs. Legrange turned her flushed face away, to hide the hysterical agitation she could not quite suppress.
"Take my arm, Fanny; and do not walk so fast. You will hurt yourself," said Mr. Burroughs kindly.
"No, no: nothing can hurt me now. I must go fast: if I had wings, I should fly!"
"Here is the house. Will you wait in the parlor till I bring her down?" asked Teddy, leading the way up the steps of the principal hotel at Yellow Springs.
"No: take me to the room where they are waiting. I want to see her without preparation," said Mrs. Legrange.
So the whole party followed Teddy up the stairs to a door, where he paused and knocked. A low voice said,—
"Come in!" and the opening door showed Dora seated upon a low chair, with Sunshine clasped in her arms, and fast asleep. She made a motion to rise upon seeing the visitors; but Mrs. Legrange, lifting her finger as imploring silence softly advanced, and bent with clasped hands and eager eyes over the sleeping child. Then, with the graceful instinct of a woman who knows and pities the wound in the heart of her less fortunate rival, she put her arms about Dora and the child, embracing both, and pressed her lips lightly upon Dora's cheek, devouringly upon Sunshine's lips.