"You see how it is, Miss Chase, and God knows how sorry I am to see my dear master so," Franklin said, sorrowfully, as she desisted at last, and gazed in silent anguish at the mental wreck in the chair.
A new thought came to her, and she exclaimed:
"Where is my mother?"
"She returned to Richmond almost a month ago, Miss Chase."
"Why did she not remain and nurse poor Love?" she groaned.
Franklin hesitated a moment, then returned in a respectful undertone:
"I can not say for a certainty, miss, but it is whispered among the servants that Mrs. Ellsworth sent her away because the young ladies wished it."
"The young ladies?" inquiringly.
"Miss Peyton and Miss Craye, your cousins. Mrs. Ellsworth has adopted them as her joint heiresses since she came into the fortune that my master lost by his failure to marry on his twenty-sixth birthday."
He gave a great start of surprise when the lovely, sad-eyed girl answered quickly: