which she was actually saved. She stood trembling and shaking in the
storm of her grief, trying to stem her floods of tears with her
quivering little hands, and unable to keep them from raining through her
fingers on to the floor.

Mrs. Enderby sighed. Though she could not know all Hetty's thoughts, she
guessed some of them, and her heart sank lower than ever at the thought
of the trouble which might come of the introduction of so stormy an
element into her hitherto peaceful household. However, she was not a
woman to flinch from a duty, when once she had made up her mind to
recognize it.

"Come, come, my child!" she said, "you have been passing through a great
trial, but you must try to be brave and make yourself happy with us."

Had Mrs. Enderby taken poor Hetty in her arms and given her a motherly
kiss, much would have been done to heal the wounds made in the child's
sensitive heart. But it was part of her plan, conscientiously made, that
she must not accustom Hetty to caresses, such as she could not expect to
receive later in life. So she only patted her on the shoulder, and, when
her passion of crying had a little subsided, bade her run away and get
on her things, and be ready as soon as possible to come with her to
Wavertree Hall.




CHAPTER X.

THE NEW HOME.