She started up from her pillow, asking eagerly, "What is it, mammy? Oh!
what is it? is my papa better?"

"Yes, darling Massa Horace much better dis mornin'; de doctor say 'he
gwine git well now for sartin, if he don't git worse again.'"

"Oh, mammy! It seems too good to be true! Oh, how very, very good God has
been to me!" cried the little girl, weeping for very joy.

For a moment, in the intensity of her happiness, she forgot that she was
still in disgrace and banishment--forgot everything but the joyful fact
that her father was spared to her. But, oh! she could not forget it long.
The bitter recollection soon returned, to damp her joy and fill her with
sad forebodings.




CHAPTER V.

"I'll do whate'er thou wilt, I'll be silent;
But oh! a reined tongue, and a bursting heart,
Are hard at once to bear."

JOANNA BAILLIE'S BASIL.


Mr. Dinsmore's recovery was not very rapid. It was several weeks after he
was pronounced out of danger ere he was able to leave his room; and then
he came down looking so altered, so pale, and thin, and weak, that it