"Who is this nurse you have been so kind to procure for me?" Mrs. Linden said to her friend, a few days subsequently. She had gained much in a short time.
"She is a stranger to me. I never saw her before she came and said that she had heard that there was a sick lady here who wished a nurse."
"She did?"
"Yes."
"She must be an angel in disguise, then."
"So I should think," returned her friend. "I have never met a lovelier person. Her face is sweetness itself; her manners are full of ease and grace, and her heart seems a deep well of love to all."
"Who can she be? Where did she come from? I feel toward her as if she were my own child."
"But she is only a nurse," said her friend. "Do not forget that, nor your station in society."
Mrs. Linden shook her head and murmured—"I have never found one like her in the highest places; no, not even in my own children. Station in society! Ah! my friend, that delusion has passed."
As Mrs. Linden recovered more and more, Ellen remained with her, waiting only for a good opportunity to make herself known. She did not wish to do this until she was sure that she had awakened a feeling of affection in her mother's bosom.