Yet perhaps it is the best; the whole mental nature may be mine, as the whole physical is----" Her hand pressed strongly upon her heart.

"I have been at peace so long," she went on, "yet I always knew trouble must come again, and through _her_; but if it were only for me, it would be nothing.

Now _she_ must suffer.

I had thought she might escape.

But it is the old story, the sins of the fathers----Can no miseries of mine be enough to free her ?" She turned away into her own room, and shut the door softly, so as not to wake her child; yet firmly, as if she would shut out even that child from all share in her solitary burden..