She therefore took to her bed and her daughter, their only child, became nothing more than an unpaid and unthanked nurse.
She waited on her mother hand and foot and never had a chance to be with girls of her own age.
It was Lady Milborne who had tried to bring a little happiness into Rosemary’s life and to relieve her, if only for a few hours a day, from the miseries of her home.
She therefore suggested that she should teach Salrina.
It had been a kind action and, as Rosemary was then eighteen and very intelligent, Salrina enjoyed her lessons and learnt a great deal from them.
The years went by, until when Rosemary was twenty-six and in the villagers’ eyes at any rate a confirmed ‘old maid’, a miracle happened.
A distant relative of her father’s called to see them unexpectedly and, a
