Aikenside - Page 51/166

Grandma had an object in telling this to Maddy, for she was not blind

to the nature of the doctor's interest in her child, and though it

gratified her pride, she felt that it must not be, both for his sake

and Maddy's, so she told the sad story of Uncle Joseph as a warning to

Maddy, who could scarcely be said to need it. Still it made an

impression on her, and all that afternoon she was thinking of the

unfortunate man, whom she had seen but once, and that in his prison

home, where she had been with her grandfather the only time she had

ever ridden in the cars. He had taken her in his arms then, she

remembered, and called her his little Sarah. That must have been the

name of his treacherous betrothed. She would ask if it were not so,

and she did.

"Yes, Sarah Morris, that was her name, and her face was handsome as a

doll," grandma replied, and wondering if she were as beautiful as

Jessie, or Jessie's mother, Maddy went back to her reveries of the

poor maniac, whom Sarah Morris had wronged so cruelly.