Surprise for a time held the old woman speechless; a look of sorrow and affection drove the querulousness out of her face and voice. "What ails you, child?" she said, wonderingly. "Do you want to make Mr. Arthur hate me more, and keep you from me entirely? Don't you know, dearie, how he swore that the day I told you these things, he would forbid you to visit me; and if you disobeyed, take you away where I could not even hear of you?" Tears were in Hagar's eyes, and she held out her wrinkled hands imploringly. "Don't tease your old nurse, dearie; don't.[28] I can't tell you these things now, and they could not make you any happier, child. Wait a little; the time will come—" [28] "So will old age, auntie; and death, and all the knowledge we want, I suppose, when it is too late to make it profitable. Well, auntie, I will tell you something in exchange for my mother's story, and to make it easier for you to relate it. But first, will you answer a few questions?—wait, I know what you would say," as the old woman made a deprecating movement, and essayed to speak. "Hear me, now." Hagar looked at the girl earnestly for a moment, and then said, quietly: "Go on then, dearie." "First," pursued Madeline; "my father dislikes me very much; is this the truth?" Hagar nodded assent. "He dislikes you because you were always good to me." Here she paused, and Hagar again nodded. "Because you were attached to my mother." Again she paused, and again the old woman bowed assent. "And because"—the girl fixed the eyes of the old nurse with her own,—"because you were too familiar with my mother's past, and his, and knew too well the secret of his hatred of me!" Hagar sat silent and motionless, but Madeline, who had read her answer in the troubled face, continued: "Very good; I knew all this before, and I'll tell you what else I know. I know why Mr. John Arthur hates me!" Hagar opened her mouth, and shut it again quickly. "He hates me," pursued Madeline, "because my mother left him her fortune so tied up that he can only use it;
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