“And my privilege,” returned Ellen, speaking more firmly.

“What good would be the result?”

“Great good, I trust.  Let me go and be the angel to her sick-chamber.  She is too ill to notice any one; she will not, therefore, perceive that a stranger is ministering to her.  As she begins to recover, and I have an inward assurance that she will, I will bestow upon her the most assiduous attentions.  I will inspire her heart with grateful affection for one whom she knows not; and when she asks for my name, I will conceal it until the right moment, and then throw myself at her feet and call her mother.  Oh! let it be my task to watch in her sick-chamber.”

Neither Charles nor his sister said one word in opposition.  On the next day, they all started for P—.  Charles Linden went with his excellent wife to the house where his mother was residing with an old friend, and opened to this friend their wishes.  She readily entered into their plans, and Ellen was at once constituted nurse.

For the first two days, there were but few encouraging symptoms.  Mrs. Linden was in a very critical situation.  At the end of a week, the fever abated, leaving the patient as helpless as an infant, and with scarcely more consciousness of external things.  During this time, Ellen attended her with some of the feeling with which a mother watches over her babe.  Gradually the life-current in the veins of the sick woman became fuller and stronger.  Gradually her mind acquired the power of acting through the external senses.  Ellen perceived this.  Now had come the ardently hoped-for time.  With a noiseless step, with a voice low and tender, with hands that did their office almost caressingly, she anticipated and met every want of the invalid.

As light began again to dawn upon the mind of Mrs. Linden, she could not but notice the sweet-faced, gentle, assiduous stranger who had become her nurse.  Her first feeling was one of gratitude, blended with affection.  Never before had any one been so devoted to her; never before had any one appeared to regard her with such a real wish to do her good.

“What is your name, my dear?” she asked one day, in a feeble voice, looking up into her face.

A warm flush came over the cheeks of Ellen; her eyes dropped to the floor.  She hesitated for several moments; then she replied in a low voice—­“Ellen.”

Mrs. Linden looked at her earnestly, but said nothing in reply.

“Who is this nurse you have been so kind to procure for me?” Mrs. Linden said to her friend, a few days subsequently.  She had gained much in a short time.

“She is a stranger to me.  I never saw her before she came and said that she had heard that there was a sick lady here who wished a nurse.”

“She did?”

“Yes.”

“She must be an angel in disguise, then.”

“So I should think,” returned her friend.  “I have never met a lovelier person.  Her face is sweetness itself; her manners are full of ease and grace, and her heart seems a deep well of love to all.”