Guy preferred waiting in the carriage until
such time as Grandpa Markham could speak with him, but Jessie went
with the doctor into the sick room, startling even the grandmother,
and causing her to wonder who the richly-dressed child could be.
"Dying, doctor," said one of the women, affirmatively, not
interrogatively; but the doctor shook his head, and holding in one
hand his watch he counted the faint pulse beats as with his eye he
measured off the minute.
"There are too many here," he said. "She needs the air you are
breathing," and in his singular, authoritative way, he cleared the
crowded room of the mistaken friends who were unwittingly breathing up
Maddy's very life.
All but the grandparents and Jessie; these he suffered to remain, and
sitting down by Maddy, watched till the long sleep was ended. Silently
and earnestly the aged couple prayed for their darling, asking that if
possible she might be spared, and God heard their prayers, lifting, at
last, the heavy fog from Maddy's brain, and waking her to life and
partial consciousness. It was Jessie who first caught the expression
of the opening eyes, and darting forward, she exclaimed, "She's waked
up, Dr. Holbrook. She will live."
Wonderingly Maddy looked at her, and then as a confused recollection
of where they had met before crossed her mind, she smiled faintly, and
said:
"Where am I now? Have I never come home, and is this Dr.
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