Jane Elton is coming to live with us all the days of her life, and is going to be my own mother."
Mary looked to Mr. Lloyd, and then to Jane, and read in their faces the confirmation of the happy tidings; and to Rebecca's utter amazement, the tears streamed from her eyes. "Oh, Mary!" said she, turning disappointed away, "now I am ashamed of thee, I thought thee would be as glad as I am."
But Mr. Lloyd and Jane knew how to understand this expression of her feelings; they advanced to her and gave her their hands; she joined them: "the Lord hath heard my prayer," she said, and she wept aloud.
"I thank thee, Mary," replied Mr. Lloyd; "God grant I may deserve thy confidence."
"If she has prayed for it, what then does she cry for?" said Rebecca, who stood beside her father, watching Mary's inexplicable emotion, and vainly trying to get some clue to it.
"Come with me, my child, and I will tell thee," replied her father, and he very discreetly led out the child, and left Jane with her faithful friend.
The moment he had closed the door, Mary said smiling through her tears of joy, "It has taken me by surprise at last, but for all that I am not quite so blind as you may think. Do you remember, Jane, telling me one day when you laid your book down to listen to Mr. Lloyd, who was talking to Rebecca, that since your mother's voice had been silent, you had never heard one so sweet as Mr. Lloyd's? I thought to myself then you
