She would seat the two before her, range the other children beside them, and then lead the chorus in a spirited chant of these names:-- "Isa Vinda Exene Bloom! Ella Minda Almarine Bloom!" repeating this a long time until they were all breathless, and the solemn twins themselves were looking embarrassed and rather foolishly pleased.
As he observed her day by day in her joyous growth, it was inevitable that he came more and more to observe the woman who was caring for her, and it was thus on one night in late summer that he awoke to an awful truth,--a truth that brought back the words of the woman's former husband with a new meaning.
He had heard Prudence say to her, "You are a pretty mamma," and suddenly there came rushing upon him the sum of all the impressions his eyes had taken of her since that day when the Bishop had spoken.

He trembled and became weak under the assault, feeling that in some insidious way his strength had been undermined.

He went out into the early evening to be alone, but she, presently, having put the child to bed, came and stood near, silently in the doorway.
He looked and saw she was indeed made new, restored to the lustre and fulness of her young womanhood.

He remembered then that she had long been silent when he came near her, plainly conscious of his presence but with an apparent constraint, with something almost tentative in her manner.

With her return to health and comeliness there had come back to her a thousand little graces of dress and manner and speech.