Won at last

“I don’t think he can, mother,” Cherry said, lifting her quiet eyes to mine. “He spoke about it this morning, as he was starting for school. I told him I was afraid you mightn’t...

TEA was coming to an end when the postman’s knock sounded, and Ted rushed upstairs for what had come. That was his privilege, as our youngest. The postman was not wont to rap of...

MAIMIE BROWNE looked steadily at me. Then she took off her hat, and the gaslight shone down upon such a head of soft flaxen hair, all curls and ripples. Was this a step towards...

“Look!” she cried,—“these are for you to see, Uncle Robert,—and Aunt Marion too, if she likes. Three are letters from father to me—one before he married mother, and two afterwar...

THE day of Maimie Browne’s unexpected appearance was Thursday; and my husband decided to go to “The Gables” on Saturday, taking me with him. I should have enjoyed the prospect a...

BUT however impossible it might seem to me, as well as to Robert, that we should send Maimie into the workhouse, yet making up my mind that she had to be kept, and making up my...

Jack looked uneasy and out of spirits. I could see that at a glance. Cress was in high glee, laughing and talking with Maimie. Owen always took things quietly, and I noticed no...

MAIMIE was as good as her word, which was more than I had expected. She had seemed to me too flighty to settle down steadily to work of any kind, But I think this was mistaken j...

“Mother, you must not,” Jack cried, in a trembling voice, as if he too thought me cruel. I could have borne anything but this. I felt my heart grow suddenly hard.

“We will try home remedies first,” I said, “as soon as Maimie will go upstairs. I don’t suppose it is anything serious.” Yet my heart misgave me as I spoke.

A doctor had to be called in, and Maimie’s attack proved to be, as she had expected, one of severe inflammation. She was very very ill, though by her own account not so ill as t...

“Oh,—stupid things,—all sorts. In spelling,—words that I really know quite well I go and spell all wrong, and don’t see till the mischief is done. And then there’s scratching ou...

ONE day, about four months after the visit which Robert and I had paid to “The Gables,” I was astonished to see a fly drive up to our door, and Aunt Briscoe descend from it.

AS Maimie went away, I had a conviction in my mind that her absence would not be only for one week. And my conviction proved true. The week grew into four weeks, before Aunt Bri...

TWO years had gone by since Mary Browne came to us,—Maimie, the friendless and homeless girl, for a while unwelcome to my heart and reluctantly accepted, yet now completely one...

WITHOUT thinking, I strolled some distance, till almost out of sight of my husband. Nobody else was near. And all at once I saw on the grass, a good way from the road, a prostra...

For Robert was careworn and aged for his years, with grey streaks in his hair, and furrows in brow and cheek; and he had slow quiet manners, and a wonderfully good expression, a...

THAT day seemed to work a change in our home. The peaceful monotony of our life was broken, and the waters could not get back to their former even flow. A kind of restlessness,...

THINGS went on quietly for some weeks; Maimie still one of us; Churton sleeping near at hand, in and out often, but apparently in no hurry to come to any sort of decision. Weeks...

CHURTON had not been near us for three weeks, when Maimie left her room. He had written once, just a line, to say he was glad to hear she was better, and to enclose a cheque for...

MY husband had a serious talk with Cress that same evening, and warned him that nothing of the kind must ever happen again. He spoke gently but very firmly about the evil of giv...

EARLY in February Cress left us; and I had more comfort in my boy before he sailed than in all his previous life. He seemed softened, and less full of self; and he let me speak...

“DEAR FATHER,—I begin to think you have forgotten me. It is so very long since you have been to the house.” “I want very much to see you now—very much indeed—to ask you a questi...

“Oh, it must be. It would have come to this sooner or later. Father will not give me up, you see. And I ought to be there,—I ought to be there.”

A WEEK passed, and not a word came from Maimie. It was strange how the days seemed to drag with us, and how we watched the posts, and how we all talked of Maimie, wondering each...

“DEAR Aunt MARION,—I am so sure somebody will come soon from home to see me, that I shall have a letter ready to send, on the first opportunity.” “This is to be a private letter...

THE first part of the will was dated a few years back,—within a year of Uncle Briscoe’s death. “The Gables,” and all furniture in the house, and all money in the funds, bringing...

“Yes, I hope so. And, after all, I could do nothing for him, even if we were together. He will not hear a word of what is right,—and I think he would soon try to make me do wron...