"Did Phillis say that?" Christian answered, with a sore sinking of the
heart at the utter impossibility that under such influences these children
should ever learn to love her.

"Phillis is a fool," cried Arthur, angrily. "When I get well again, if ever
she says one word to me of the things she used to say about mother,
won't I pitch into her, that's all!"

Christian smiled--a rather sad smile, but she thought it best to take no
notice, and soon Phillis came and fetched the two away.

After they were gone the young step-mother stood by her bedroom fire,
thinking anxiously of these her children, turning over in her mind plan
after plan as to how she should make them love her. But it seemed a
very hopeless task still.

She looked into the blazing coals, and then began playing with a little
chimney-piece ornament showing the day of the month--21st of March.

Could it be possible that she had been married three months? Three
months since that momentous day when her solitary, self-contained life
was swept out of the narrow boundaries of self forever--made full and
busy, ay, and bright too? For it was not a sad face, far from it, which
met her in the mirror above; it was a face radiant with youth and health,
and the soft peacefulness which alone gives a kind of beauty.

Well, so best! She had not expected this, but she did not wish it
otherwise.