"Yes you can, Nan; and you will, when you know that it would make me
very unhappy to have you be unkind to her," answered Hetty, firmly. "She
and her husband both, have done all in their power to atone for their
wrong; and nobody has ever said a word against Mrs. Little since her
marriage; and one thing I want distinctly understood, Nan, by every
one on this place,--any disrespectful word or look towards Mr. or Mrs.
Little will be just the same as if it were towards me myself."

Nan was silenced, but her face wore an obstinate expression which gave
Hetty some misgivings as to the success of her experiment. However, she
knew that Nan could be trusted to repeat to the other servants all that
she had said, and that it would lose nothing in the recital; and, as for
the future, one of Hetty's first principles of action was an old proverb
which her grandfather had explained to her when she was a little girl,--

"Don't cross bridges till you come to them."




III.

The gratitude with which James Little's wife received Hetty's
proposition was so great that it softened even her father-in-law's
heart.

"I do believe, Hetty," he said, when he gave her their answer, "I do
believe that poor girl has suffered more 'n we've given her credit for.
When I explained to her that you was goin' to take her right in to be
like one o' your own family, she turned as white as a sheet, and says