The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-31

sit and think. Here Esther sat one day
 when Lady Deadlock came upon her sud denly. She began to speak few cour- teous formal words but cried all at once, wildly: "Oh, my child! My childl' and drew Esther to her breast, kissed
 her and wept over her, and at last sank to her knees and sobbed: "I am your
 wicked and unhappy mother! Oh, try to forgive mel,
 Esther raised her up, beseeching her
 not to kneel before her in humiliation, trying to tell her that if there was any 1 thing to forgive, it was forgiven long
 ago, and that always, always she had
 loved her mother, when she did not know
 her, and now when she did.
 When they became more quiet and
 sat, holding each other, and Lady Ded-
 lock had told her how she had thought
 her child dead until recently, Esther asked if her secret was safe; and her , mother told her that 1t was being held
 over her by the family lawyer, MT. Tul- | llinghorn.
 They said farewell to each other know l ing that it must be farewell for life.
 Esther watched her mother through tears, watched her till, with stately and proud 1 footsteps, as ever, Lady Dedlock disap-
 peared in Chesney Wold. She knew with
 bitter grief through what dark and bit l
 she did not dream the dreadful road
 that they were to go on soon.
 That night Esther Summerson lay
 awake a long, long while, heavily sor- 1 rowful that she ever had been born, bur
 dened with the thought that it would have
 been better and happier for many people l if she had died at birth. But when she | thought of her guardian and of Ada and of many others, she knew that this was
 wrong; and before she cried herself to
 sleep she was able to be humbly thankful i for the change that illness had made in I her, so that she never could disgrace her
 mother henceforth by any trace of like | ness.
 l She succeeded before many days in turn ] ing her old smile and manner to the world, and when she returned to Bleak | House, where all declared they had missed l her sorely, she was the old Dame Dur den again. However heavily her secret 1 lay on her heart, none dreamed that any thing burdened her. except John Jarn- 1 dyce to whom she had told it under
 permission from her mother. Even be
 could do nothing except to watch and wait. He looked concerned and alarmed when he heard about MT. Tulxinghorn
 and said that he was a dangerous man. l It was on the evening that Esther gave
 him her confidence and he frightened her
 secret as she told him gratefully, by
 sharing it, that he told her he had some
 thing that he wished her to answer, and that he would write 1t to her rather than I ask her in speech.
 l Her little maid Charley brought her his | letter next day
 I Before she had read it through her eyes were full of tears. It was so impressive | in its love for her. so unselfish in eau | tioning her to know her own heart, that | she could not read much at time. But | she read it through three times before she | laid it down. It asked her would she be the mistress of Bleak House?
 | She saw his face and heard his voice and felt the influence of his simple, true | nature in every line. It addressed her I as if their places were reversed, and all
 the good deeds had been hers. And he
 said that she must have ample time to | consider and that, in any event, she would ever be his bright Dame Durden | That he could love her as well when | her old face was gone, as in her fairer 1 days: that his generosity rose above her 1 inheritance of shame; that he had not
 asked this when she was better looking,
 but asked it now-these things only
 showed her anew his fidelity To devote
 her life to his happiness was to thank | him but poorly. Proudly and lovingly she | 1 Still she cried very much, and not only | in the fullness of her heart There was something that she had to put away for
 ever before she could go to John Jarn- 1 dyce.
 ! She went to her desk and took our A ' book. In it were some withered flowers. They had been given to her by a poor | young surgeon. whom she and her guard
 ian had met many times when they visited people whom John Jarndyce was helping.
 Esther had thought, sometimes, that he | loved her. and that if he had been richer
 he would have told her so. But lie had gone away--to India-wthout spealsinp. | and there he had won honor in a great crisis, and was now returning home again. She took the withered flowers from the
 book, pressed them to her lips. and then burned them at the candle. They were l'dust in an instant.
 She went downstairs next mornins,
 and put her arms around John .Jarn- dyce's neck and kissed him, and said this was her answer.
 , In all his happiness and joy. John