CHAPTER XXI.
At last there was a movement, and a faint sigh as the sleeper awoke.
Bella, by a kind of instinctive movement, rose, and holding out her arms, took the baby that the nurse might be at liberty to attend to the mother.

It was a strange moment.

The little creature had ceased moaning, and lay quite tranquil, its tiny face looking whiter and more wax-like under the shadow of the heavy crape veil which hung partly over it.

It even seemed to nestle closer to the heart through which its touch sent so keen a stab of pain, and the young widow bent low over it as her eyes were blinded for an instant by a vision of what might have been.

What might have been! The happiness she had just begun to taste, the hope that would have made her future bright, had been crushed together by this child's father--yet the frail little creature lay tenderly cradled in her arms.