Aurelia asked where she lived now. At Sedhurst, in the next parish,
she was told; but she would not accept a promise that her charge
should soon be brought to visit her. "Better not, ma'am, thank you
all the same, not till she's broke in. She'll pine the less if she
don't see nor hear nothing about the old place, nor Daddy and Sally
and Davie. If you bring her soon, you'll never get her away again.
That's the worst of a nurse-child. I was warned. It just breaks
your heart!"
So away went the good foster-mother sobbing; and Aurelia's charge
began. Fay claimed her instantly to explore the garden and house.
The child had been sent home alone on the sudden illness of her
nurse, and had been very forlorn, so that her cousin's attention
was a great boon to her. Hope was incited to come out; but Jenny
Bowles kept a jealous watch over her, and treated every one else
as an enemy; and before Aurelia's hat was on, came the terrible
woe of Amoret's awakening. Her sobs and wailings for her mammy
were entirely beyond the reach of Aurelia's soothings and caresses,
and were only silenced by Molly's asseveration that the black man
was at the door ready to take her into the dark room. That this
was no phantom was known to the poor child, and was a lurking
horror to Aurelia herself.
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