She clasped the orphan closer and wept.

“Oh! you don’t know how precious your love is to my heart, dear, dear Mrs. Murray!  In all this wide world whom have I to love me but you and Mr. Hammond?  Even in the great sorrow of leaving you, it will gladden me to feel that I possess so fully your confidence and affection.  But I must go away; and after a little while you will not miss me; for Estelle will be with you, and you will not need me.  Oh, it is hard to leave you! it is a bitter trial!  But I know what my duty is; and were it even more difficult, I would not hesitate.  I hope you will not think me unduly obstinate when I tell you, that I have fully determined to apply for that situation in New York.”

Mrs. Murray pushed the girl from her, and, with a sob, buried her face in her arms.

Edna waited in vain for her to speak, and finally she stooped and kissed one of the hands, and said brokenly as she left the room: 

“Good-night—­my dearest—­my best friend.  If you could only look into my heart and see how it aches at the thought of separation, you would not add the pain of your displeasure to that which I already suffer.”

When the orphan opened her eyes on the following morning, she found a note pinned to her pillow: 

“My dear Edna:  I could not sleep last night in consequence of your unfortunate resolution, and I write to beg you, for my sake if not for your own, to reconsider the matter.  I will gladly pay you the same salary that you expect to receive as governess, if you will remain as my companion and assist at Le Bocage.  I cannot consent to give you up; I love you too well, my child, to see you quit my house.  I shall soon be an old woman, and then what should I do without my little orphan girl?  Stay with me always, and you shall never know what want and toil and hardship mean.  As soon as you are awake, come and kiss me good-morning, and I shall know that you are my own dear, little Edna.  “Affectionately yours,
                  “Ellen Murray.”

Edna knelt and prayed for strength to do what she felt duty sternly dictated; but, though her will did not falter her heart bled, as she wrote a few lines thanking her benefactress for the affection that had brightened and warmed her whole lonely life, and assuring her that the reasons which induced her to leave Le Bocage were imperative and unanswerable.

An hour later she entered the breakfast-room, and found the members of the family already assembled.  While Mrs. Murray was cold and haughty, taking no notice of Edna’s salutation, Estelle talked gayly with Mr. Allston concerning a horseback ride they intended to take that morning; and Mr. Murray, leaning back in his chair, seemed engrossed in the columns of the London Times which contained a recent speech of Gladstone’s.  Presently he threw down the paper, looked at his watch and ordered his horse.