"Why may not I be the nurse?" was asked in hesitating tones.

"You!" said Charles, in a voice of surprise. "That should be the
duty of Florence."

"And my privilege," returned Ellen, speaking more firmly.

"What good would be the result?"

"Great good, I trust. Let me go and be the angel to her
sick-chamber. She is too ill to notice any one; she will not,
therefore, perceive that a stranger is ministering to her. As she
begins to recover, and I have an inward assurance that she will, I
will bestow upon her the most assiduous attentions. I will inspire
her heart with grateful affection for one whom she knows not; and
when she asks for my name, I will conceal it until the right moment,
and then throw myself at her feet and call her mother. Oh! let it be
my task to watch in her sick-chamber."

Neither Charles nor his sister said one word in opposition. On the
next day, they all started for P--. Charles Linden went with his
excellent wife to the house where his mother was residing with an
old friend, and opened to this friend their wishes. She readily
entered into their plans, and Ellen was at once constituted nurse.

For the first two days, there were but few encouraging symptoms.
Mrs. Linden was in a very critical situation. At the end of a week,
the fever abated, leaving the patient as helpless as an infant, and
with scarcely more consciousness of external things. During this
time, Ellen attended her with some of the feeling with which a