In pursuance of her plan, Esther meant to assume the manners and
character, as she had done the dress, of a mechanic's wife; but
then, to account for her long absence, and her long silence towards
all that ought to have been dear to her, it was necessary that she
should put on an indifference far distant from her heart, which was
loving and yearning, in spite of all its faults. And, perhaps, she
over-acted her part, for certainly Mary felt a kind of repugnance to
the changed and altered aunt, who so suddenly reappeared on the
scene; and it would have cut Esther to the very core, could she have
known how her little darling of former days was feeling towards her.
"You don't remember me, I see, Mary!" she began. "It's a long while
since I left you all, to be sure; and I, many a time, thought of
coming to see you, and--and your father. But I live so far off, and
am always so busy, I cannot do just what I wish. You recollect aunt
Esther, don't you, Mary?"
"Are you Aunt Hetty?" asked Mary faintly, still looking at the face
which was so different from the old recollections of her aunt's
fresh dazzling beauty.
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