Miss Plympton soon retired, with the promise to come again when Edith
should feel stronger. Breakfast was sent up, and taken away untasted,
and at noon Miss Plympton once more made her appearance.

"I have been thinking about many things," said Edith, after some
preliminary remarks, "and have been trying to recall what I can of my
own remembrance of papa. I was only eight years old, but I have a pretty
distinct recollection of him, and it has been strengthened by his
portrait, which I always have had. Of my mother I have a most vivid
remembrance, and I have never forgotten one single circumstance
connected with her last illness. I remember your arrival, and my
departure from home after all was over. But there is one thing which I
should like very much to ask you about. Did none of my mother's
relatives come to see her during this time?"

"Your mother's relatives acted very badly indeed, dear. From the first
they were carried away by the common belief in your dear father's guilt.
Some of them came flying to your mother. She was very ill at the time,
and these relatives brought her the first news which she received. It
was a severe blow. They were hard-hearted or thoughtless enough to
denounce your father to her, and she in her weak state tried to defend
him. All this produced so deplorable an effect that she sank rapidly.
Her relatives left her in this condition. She tried to be carried to
your dear father in his prison, but could not bear the journey. They
took her as far as the gates, but she fainted there, and had to be taken
back to the house. So then she gave up. She knew that she was going to
die, and wrote to me imploring me to come to her. She wished to intrust
you to me. I took you from her arms--"

Miss Plympton paused, and Edith was silent for some time.