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Into Mistress Stagg's life had struck a shaft of colored light, had coe music, had flown a bird of paradise It was and it was not

her dead child coain She knew that her Lucy had never been thus, and

the love that she gave Audrey was hardly e, which, had she tried, she could not have explained When they

were alone together, Audrey called the older woman "mother," often knelt

and laid her head upon the other's lap or shoulder

In all her ways she eet and duteous, grateful and eager to serve But her spirit dwelt

in a rarer air, and there were heights and depths where the waif and her

protectress nition, and

though she could not understand, yet loved her protégée At night, in the

playhouse, this love was heightened into exultant worship At all tiirl's beauty, pride in the coratulation and the pleasing knowledge that wisdom is

vindicated of its children Was not all this of her bringing about? Did it

not first occur to her that the child ht take Jane Day's place? Even

Charles, who strutted and plumed himself and offered his snuffbox to every

passer-by,to

laugh triuently than ever; for it

was her pleasure to dress Darden's Audrey richly, in soft colors, heavy

silken stuffs upon which was lavished a wealth of delicate needlework It

was chiefly while she sat and sewed upon these pretty things, with Audrey,