heavenly than all the rest was her rose and white young face, and the
sweet mouth which I had touched with my lips. Oh if I had but once had
the happiness of kissing that mouth in life! A sudden feeling glowed
in my heart, and an inward voice told me that a thousand kisses
from Cousin Maud would never be worth one single kiss from that lovely
young mother, and that I had indeed lost almost as much as my pitying
friends had said. And I could not help sorrowing, weeping for a long
time; I felt as though I had lost just what was best and dearest, and
for the first time I saw that my good cousin was right ugly as other
folks said, and my silly little head conceived that a real mother must be
fair to look upon, and that however kind any one else might be she could
never be so gracious and lovable.

And so I fell asleep; and in my dreams the picture came towards me out of
the frame and took me in her arms as Madonna takes her Holy Child, and
looked at me with a gaze as if all the love on earth had met in those
eyes. I threw my arms round her neck and waited for her to fondle and
play with me like Mistress Stromer with her little Clare; but she gently
and sadly shook her head with the golden crownlet, and went up to Cousin
Maud and set me in her lap.

"I have never forgot that dream, and often in my prayers have I lifted up
my heart to my sainted mother, and cried to her as to the blessed Virgin
and Saint Margaret, my name-saint; and how often she has heard me and
rescued me in need and jeopardy! As to my cousin, she was ever dearer to
me from that night; for had not my own mother given me to her, and when
folks looked at me pitifully and bewailed my lot, I could laugh in my
heart and think: 'If only you knew! Your children have only one mother,
but we have two; and our own real mother is prettier than any one's,
while the other, for all that she is so ugly, is the best.'"