"Oh, mammy! I've come back to you to die!" sobbed Dainty, falling wearily on the old woman's ample breast.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
"ONLY TO SEE YOU, MY DARLING."
Oh, what a welcome Dainty received from the true hearts in that humble home!
They treated her like a queen, but so warm was their devotion, and so eager their interest, they soon drew from her lips all that had happened to her in Richmond.
The women's tears fell copiously, and even Hiram Peters could not help drawing the backs of his horny hands now and then across his kind, moist eyes, while he groaned:
"I swow you had troubles fit to kill you!"
"At the last I could bear my shame and misery no longer. I made up my mind to come back to West Virginia, and try to find some evidence of my marriage, that my child should not be born under a cloud of shame," said Dainty, sorrowfully.
"Poor lamb!" groaned mammy; and the others sighed in concert, for when they had heard all she could tell about her marriage, Mr. Peters was fain to confess that her prospects looked very dark.