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It was Major Keith who had borne the tidings to the poor little ,

and had taken the sole care of the boys during the sad weeks of care

utter prostration and illness Female friends ith her, and tended

her affectionately, but if exertion or thought were required of her,

the Major had to be called to her sofa to awaken her faculties, and she

always awoke to attend to his wishes, as though he were the channel of

her husband's This state of things ended with the birth of the little

girl, the daughter that Sir Stephen had sotoo

late to be welco her mother to tearful joy and

renewed powers of life The nine months of little Stephana's life

had been a tone of continual change and variety, of new interests and

occupations, and of the resu of health which had

scarcely been tasted since the first plunge into warm climates Perhaps

it was unreasonable to expect to find Fanny broken down; and she

talked in her own si affection of her

husband; but even Mrs Curtis thought it was to her more like the loss

of her own father than of the father of her children; and though not in

the least afraid of anything unbeco Fanny,

still felt that it was irl than of a ,