"Don't read."
Miriam closed her book.
"And come here."
Miriam rose and went up to her.
"How can you read so to stupid old nurse?" resumed the young girl; "I don't like Baxter."
"She likes it, my darling, and she is blind, and cannot read for herself."
"But if I were as jealous of you as you are of me," continued she whom the old woman had called Ducky, "I should not like it."
She laid her curled head on the shoulder of the beautiful Miriam, who stooped and gave her a long embrace. Then they walked up and down the garden, arm in arm, talking in lower tones. I turned to ask Cornelius who were the ladies, and I found that he stood behind me, looking down intently.
"Cornelius," I said, "did not the lady they call Miriam, come and see me when I was ill?"
"Yes, child," he replied, without looking at me, and returning to his easel as he spoke.