“No,” said Dr. Lester, “I will wait awhile.  I am interested in the young girl.  It is not impossible but that I shall in time find out from her, by chance, perhaps, who her friends are, and where she came from.  She must have wandered away in some delirium of fever,—­but it is very strange, for she appears perfectly calm now.  Yet I hardly know in what state I shall find her.”

He returned to find her very quiet and calm, learning from his wife and daughter how to sew.  She seemed deeply interested in this new occupation, and had given all her time and thought to it.  Celia and her mother privately confided to the Doctor their admiration of their strange guest.  Her ways were so graceful and beautiful! all that she said seemed so new and singular!  The Doctor, before he went away, had exhorted Mrs. Lester and Celia to ask her no questions about her former life, and everything had gone on very smoothly.  And everything went on as smoothly for some weeks.  Isabella seemed willing to be as silent as the Doctor, upon all exciting subjects.  She appeared to be quite taken up with her sewing, much to Mrs. Lester’s delight.

“She will turn out quite as good a seamstress as Celia,” said she to the Doctor.  “She sews steadily all the time, and nothing seems to please her so much as to finish a piece of work.  She will be able to do much more than her own sewing, and may prove quite a help to us.”

“I shall be very glad,” said the Doctor, “if anything can be a help, to prevent you and Celia from working yourselves to death.  I shall be glad if you can ever have done with that eternal sewing.  It is time that Celia should do something about cultivating her mind.”

“Celia’s mind is so well regulated,” interrupted Mrs. Lester.

“We won’t discuss that,” continued the Doctor,—­“we never come to an agreement there.  I was going on to say that I am becoming so interested in Isabella, that I feel towards her as if she were my own.  If she is of help to the family, that is very well,—­it is the best thing for her to be able to make herself of use.  But I don’t care to make any profit to ourselves out of her help.  Somehow I begin to think of her as belonging to us.  Certainly she belongs to nobody else.  Let us treat her as our own child.  We have but one, yet God has given us means enough to care for many more.  I confess I should find it hard to give Isabella up to any one else.  I like to find her when I come home,—­it is pleasant to look at her.”

“And I, too, love her,” said Mrs. Lester.  “I like to see her as she sits quietly at her work.”

So Isabella went on learning what it was to be one of the family, and becoming, as Mrs. Lester remarked, a very experienced seamstress.  She seldom said anything as she sat at her work, but seemed quite occupied with her sewing; while Mrs. Lester and Celia kept up a stream of conversation, seldom addressing Isabella, as, indeed, they had few topics in common.