"No fear of that, mother," said Ger; and then she told what had passed, adding, "Can you not tell her? I do believe the knowledge of the whole truth about her mother's accident would help poor Kitty to battle against the fits of wilfulness which come on from time to time."
"Perhaps so, dear. I will think about it."
SHE TOLD HER NIECE THE STORY OF HER MOTHER'S MISFORTUNE.
Mrs. Ellicott did think, and decided that what Kitty called "a hateful mystery" should be one no longer. Holding the girl's hand in hers, Mrs. Ellicott told her niece the story of her mother's misfortune, and what led to it. Tenderly, we may be sure, and not forgetting to picture the after penitence and patience of the sufferer.
"I loved your mother so dearly, Kitty," she said, "that it gives me a great pang to speak of the fault for which she paid so heavy a penalty. Your father gave me permission to tell you all, if it would be for your good to know it. He only concealed so much because it seemed hard to expose a mother's fault to her child, especially as you only knew her during those last years. You remember how lovely and how patient she was. Your father thought it would be best for you to picture her just as you saw her after—"
Mrs. Ellicott stopped to wipe the tears from her eyes.
"I am ashamed of myself!" cried Kathleen. "I might have been sure that my father was silent for a good reason; and here have I been giving way to pettishness and ill-temper, because he, in tenderness to my mother's memory, and out of love to me, withheld this sorrowful story from me. Forgive me for the trouble I have given you, aunty! I hope what I have heard will be a lesson and a help to me. I would not be without the memory of my sweet mother's face for all the world, and now I know everything, I grieve for her more than I can tell you."
Mrs. Ellicott could not regret having told Kathleen the truth, for she became much more gentle for a time and watchful over herself. An incident which occurred the same evening made her specially hopeful on the girl's account.
As Mountain was returning to his cottage, after a visit to the stables, he was accosted by a smart groom, whose face was strange to him, but whose livery showed that he was in the service of Captain Torrance.