Whether her mother received letters she did not know; but at any rate she did not express anxiety, though her looks and manner betrayed that she was ill at ease.

It was almost a relief to Maggie when some change was given to her thoughts by Nancy's becoming ill.

The damp gloomy weather brought on some kind of rheumatic attack, which obliged the old servant to keep her bed.

Formerly, in such an emergency, they would have engaged some cottager's wife to come and do the house-work; but now it seemed tacitly understood that they could not afford it.

Even when Nancy grew worse, and required attendance in the night, Maggie still persisted in her daily occupations.