I knew nothing of all this."
"Oh, Miss Lucy, 'let that flea stick in the wall,' as the saying is."
"But, dear Mrs. Wilson, now only think that your affection for me
should have lasted all these years. You speak as if such tenderness
was common. I fear you are mistaken there: most nurses go away and
think no more of those to whom they have been as mothers in infancy."
"How do you know that, Miss Lucy? Who can tell what passes inside
those poor women that are ground down into slaves, and never dare show
their real hearts to a living creature? Certainly hirelings will be
hirelings, and a poor creature that is forced to sell her breast, and
is bundled off as soon as she has served the grand folks' turn, why,
she behooves to steel herself against nature, and she knows that from
the first; but whether she always does get to harden herself, I take
leave to doubt. Miss Lucy; I knew an unfortunate girl that nursed a
young gentleman, leastways a young nobleman it was, and years after
that I have known her to stand outside the hedge for an hour to catch
a sight of him at play on the lawn among the other children. Ay, and
if she had a penny piece to spare she would go and buy him
sugar-plums, and lay wait for him, and give them him, and he heir to
thousands a year."
"Poor thing! Poor thing!"
"Next to the tie of blood, Miss Lucy, the tie of milk is a binding
affection. When you went to live twenty miles from us, I behooved to
come in the cart and see you from time to time.
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