the gift all the rest of her life beyond discovery--out of
sight and protected from suspicion."
"As if, you mean"--Mrs. Guy was quick--"she had been
wedded to it and yet was ashamed of it? Fancy," she
laughed while she manipulated the rare beads, "being
ashamed of THESE!"
"But you see she had married a clergyman."
"Yes, she must have been 'rum.' But at any rate he had
married HER. What did he suppose?"
"Why that she had never been of the sort by whom such
offerings are encouraged."
"Ah my dear, the sort by whom they're NOT--!" But Mrs.
Guy caught herself up. "And her stepson thought the
same?"
"Overwhelmingly."
"Was he then, if only her stepson--"
"So fond of her as that comes to? Yes; he had never
known, consciously, his real mother, and, without children
of her own, she was very patient and nice with him. And
i liked her so," the girl pursued, "that at the end of ten
years, in so strange a manner, to 'give her away'--"
"Is impossible to you? Then don't!" said Mrs. Guy with
decision.
21
HYLAND
