'Makes her mother nothing!' exclaimed Mrs. Markleham.
'Not so mama,' said Annie; 'but I make him what he was. I must do that. As I grew up, he occupied the same place still. I was proud of his interest: deeply, fondly, gratefully attached to him. I looked up to him, I can hardly describe how—as a father, as a guide, as one whose praise was different from all other praise, as one in whom I could have trusted and confided, if I had doubted all the world. You know, mama, how young and inexperienced I was, when you presented him before me, of a sudden, as a lover.'
'I have mentioned the fact, fifty times at least, to everybody here!' said Mrs. Markleham.
('Then hold your tongue, for the Lord's sake, and don't mention it any more!' muttered my aunt.)
'It was so great a change: so great a lo
