So passed away the first days of Alice's widowhood. By and by things subsided into their natural and tranquil course. But as if the young creature was always to be in some heavy trouble her ewe-lamb began to be ailing pining and sickly. The child's mysterious illness turned out to be some affection of the spine likely to affect health but not to shorten life--at least so the doctors said. But the long dreary suffering of one whom a mother loves as Alice loved her only child is hard to look forward to. Only Norah guessed what Alice suffered; no one but God knew.