"Have you no other resource?"

"None. My education has been neglected--we led a wild life in the
far West. I am quite unfit to go out as a governess. I am
absolutely dependent on this stranger, who receives me for my
father's sake." She put the letter-case back in the pocket of her
cloak, and ended her little narrative as unaffectedly as she had
begun it. "Mine is a sad story, is it not?" she said.

The voice of the nurse answered her suddenly and bitterly in
these strange words:

"There are sadder stories than yours. There are thousands of
miserable women who would ask for no greater blessing than to
change places with you."

Grace started. "What can there possibly be to envy in such a lot
as mine?"

"Your unblemished character, and your prospect of being
established honorably in a respectable house."

Grace turned in her chair, and looked wonderingly into the dim
corner of the room.

"How strangely you say that!" she exclaimed. There was no answer;
the shadowy figure on the chest never moved. Grace rose
impulsively, and drawing her chair after her, approached the
nurse. "Is there some romance in your life?" she asked. "Why have
you sacrificed yourself to the terrible duties which I find you