But whether or not she was playing a part, she did not betray this feeling openly, but pressed the unwilling child more closely to her bosom.
Ida breathed a sigh of relief when she was released, and moved quietly away, wondering what it was that made the woman so disagreeable to her.
"Is my nurse a good woman ?" she asked, thoughtfully, when alone with Mrs.Harding, who was setting the table for dinner.
"A good woman! What makes you ask that ?" queried her adopted mother, in surprise.
"I don't know," said Ida.
"I don't know anything to indicate that she is otherwise," said Mrs.
Harding.

"And, by the way, Ida, she is going to take you on a little excursion to-morrow." "She going to take me!" exclaimed Ida.

"Why, where are we going ?" "On a little pleasure trip; and perhaps she may introduce you to a pleasant lady, who has already become interested in you, from what she has told her." "What could she say of me ?" inquired Ida.

"She has not seen me since I was a baby." "Why," answered the cooper's wife, a little puzzled, "she appears to have thought of you ever since, with a good deal of affection." "Is it wicked," asked Ida, after a pause, "not to like those who like us ?" "What makes you ask ?" "Because, somehow or other, I don't like this Mrs.Hardwick, at all, for all she was my old nurse, and I don't believe I ever shall." "Oh, yes, you will," said Mrs.Harding, "when you find she is exerting herself to give you pleasure." "Am I going with her to-morrow morning ?" "Yes.

She wanted you to go to-day, but your clothes were not in order." "We shall come back at night, shan't we ?" "I presume so." "I hope we shall," said Ida, decidedly, "and that she won't want me to go with her again." "Perhaps you will feel differently when it is over, and you find you have enjoyed yourself better than you anticipated." Mrs.Harding exerted herself to fit Ida up as neatly as possible, and when at length she was got ready, she thought with sudden fear: "Perhaps her mother will not be willing to part with her again." When Ida was ready to start, there came upon all a little shadow of depression, as if the child were to be separated from them for a year, and not for a day only.