She lay, disheartened, watching Julia, and exacting everything from Julia, and the weary feet and weary heart of the girl almost sank under her burdens.

Mrs.Anderson had suddenly fallen from her position of an exacting tyrant to that of an exacting and helpless infant.

She followed Julia with her eyes in a broken-spirited fashion, as if fearing that she would leave her.

Julia could read the fear in her mother's countenance; she understood what her mother meant when she said querulously, "You'll get married and leave me." If Mrs.Anderson had assumed her old high-handed manner, it would have been easy for Julia to have declared her secret.

But how could she tell her now?
It would be a blow, it might be a fatal blow.