word o' kindness o the bit desolate orphan; no an offer that if she was na comfortable wi' the like o' us, that she would do a kinswoman's part by her; no a question aboot what sor o' life she led, or if she saw her way to anything better; but exhortations to her to be grateful, and a lang story aboot her ain bairns and her ain goodman. Grateful to us for what? 'Deed it's us that should be grateful, and so I would like to tell baith her and Mrs. Hammond. But ye say that Amy's downcast aboot it. Nae wonder; sic professions and sic self-seeking are nae cheerful subjects to consider. But I'll tell her ha we canna but rejoice that there's nane to take her away, for I'm sure it's nae empty words I mak use o' when I say she is like a bairn o' my ain, and your father is o' the same mind, though he says less aboot it."
Amy had other letters by the mail; one from the proprietor of the Palladium, regretting the untimely death of her father, his good friend Gerald Staunton, praising his talents, and saying that the journal had missed him, and could see no one to supply his place satisfactorily. From him Amy had expected nothing, and the well-turned phrases of regret and sympathy soothed her and comforted her. There was a longer letter from an old friend, an artist, into whose sudio
