Ida rose in anguish of spirit, torturing herself to find a way of telling what must be told.

Yet she had another respite; her mother said that, as it was Saturday, she might as well stay away from school and be a little nurse.

And the dull day wore through; the confession being still postponed.
But by the last post at night came Miss Rutherford's letter.

Ida was still sitting up, and Lotty had fallen into a doze, when the landlady brought the letter upstairs.

The child took it in, answered an inquiry about her mother in a whisper, and returned to the bedside.