Oh, mother, if I ever had a mother, where are you to-
night, when I want you so much?"
She threw herself upon her humble bed, not thinking of Grace, nor
yet of the Asylum, but revelling in her newborn joy. Suddenly,
like a flash of lightning, an incident of the past had come back
to her bewildered mind, and she knew now whose was the beautiful
braid she had treasured so carefully. Long ago--oh, how long it
seemed to her--there had come to the Asylum a short, dumpy woman,
with a merry face, who brought her this hair in a box, telling her
it was her mother's, and also that she was going to a far country,
but should return again sometime--and this woman was Marie, who
haunted her dreams so often, whispering to her of magnolias and
cape-jessamines. All this Edith remembered distinctly, and while
thinking of it she fell asleep, nor woke to consciousness even
when Rachel's kind old hands undressed her carefully and tucked
her up in bed, saying over her a prayer, and asking that Miss
Grace's heart might relent and keep the little girl.
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