"Shall I go and get it?" asked Mrs. Lee. She felt that for a little while it might be better to leave the old lady and the child alone. Renée made a move as though to go, too, but Mrs. Lee motioned her back.
"Aunt Pen will tell me where I can find it! You stay here, my dear," and she hurried away.
Elsbeth had been watching the unusual happenings with a suspicious, jealous eye. She loved her strange old mistress better than anything on earth; she resented these strangers usurping her place!
"Missus had best lay down now and keep quiet," she said, coming forward with an authoritative air. "If ye'll jes' take a powder----" But she got no further; Mrs. Forrester burst into a laugh! And Elsbeth was so startled that her knees knocked together, for, not for many years, had she heard her mistress laugh--and such a laugh!
"Elsbeth, stupid, can't you see I'm a well woman? That I am happy again? None of your powders any more! Go about your business--ransack your pantry and find some food for my pretty one here! My flower--my baby!" And with a look that transformed her thin face she lifted her arms and closed them about little Renée.
"Tell me," she whispered, as though it must be a secret between them, "was she ever unhappy?"
Renée answered very slowly because she was thinking very hard. She tried to make the mother know that her own dear mother had been always cheerful, always singing and telling beautiful stories and playing with her among the flowers--and was only unhappy when Emile brought out the father's tools.
"That was because he had been blind, and I heard her tell Emile once that his heart had broken because he could not do his work! For a long time she guided his fingers for him! She herself used to take the things they made to Paris to sell, and, when she couldn't sell them, she and Susette used to hide them so he couldn't know--Susette told me all that! I think we were very, very poor, but my mother always seemed happy. She used to sew sometimes, until she was very tired. We never had anything but the flowers to play with and the games she used to make up. And she always talked of the time when she would bring us both to America! 'It was my country and it must be yours,' she used to tell us over and over!"
"Did she--did she--ever tell you--about me?"
Renée hesitated. She knew that what she must say would hurt the old lady deeply. But before she could speak Mrs. Forrester answered herself.