"Let me undress you, ma'am. Let me see you in your nest beside the child."
"No. Go now. Or rather—rather—stay a moment or two longer. Esther, had you ever the heartache?"
"There are a few women, madam, who don't know what the heartache means."
"I suppose that is true. Once I knew nothing about it. Esther, you are lucky never to have married."
Esther Helps made no response.
"To marry—to love—and then to lose," dreamily murmured Mrs. Wyndham. "To love, and then to lose. Esther, it is a dreadful thing to be a widow, when you are young."
"But the widow can become a wife again," suddenly replied Esther.
The words seemed forced from her lips; she was sorry the moment she had uttered them.
Mrs. Wyndham opened her big eyes wide.
"I suppose the widows who can become wives again have not lost much," she responded in a cold voice.