"I don't know," said Ida.
"I don't know anything to indicate that she is otherwise," said Mrs. Harding. "And, by the way, Ida, she is going to take you on a little excursion to-morrow."
"She going to take me!" exclaimed Ida. "Why, where are we going?"
"On a little pleasure trip; and perhaps she may introduce you to a pleasant lady, who has already become interested in you, from what she has told her."
"What could she say of me?" inquired Ida. "She has not seen me since I was a baby."
"Why," answered the cooper's wife, a little puzzled, "she appears to have thought of you ever since, with a good deal of affection."
"Is it wicked," asked Ida, after a pause, "not to like those who like us?"
"What makes you ask?"
"Because, somehow or other, I don't like this Mrs. Hardwick, at all, for all she was my old nurse, and I don't believe I ever shall."
"Oh, yes, you will," said Mrs. Harding, "when you find she is exerting herself to give you pleasure."