il again and again."

At last, on the fourth night, Raby slept: slept for hours, quietly,
naturally, and with a gentle dew on his fair forehead. The doctor sat
motionless by his bed and watched him. Sally, exhausted by the long
watch, had fallen asleep on a lounge. The sound of Hetty's restless
steps, in the hall outside, had ceased for some time. The doctor sat
wondering uneasily where she had gone. She had not entered the room for
more than an hour; the house grew stiller and stiller; not a sound was
to be heard except little Raby's heavy breathing, and now and then one
of those fine and mysterious noises which the timbers of old houses have
a habit of making in the night-time. At last the lover got the better of
the physician. Doctor Eben rose, and, stealing softly to the door,
opened it as cautiously as a thief. All was dark.

"Hetty," he whispered. No answer. He looked back at Raby. The child was
sleeping so soundly it seemed impossible that he could wake for some
time. Doctor Eben groped his way to the head of the great stairway, and
listened again. All was still.

"Hetty!" he called in a low voice, "Hetty!" No answer.

"She must have fallen asleep somewhere. She will surely take cold," the
doctor said to himself; persuading his conscience that it was his duty
to go and find her. Slowly feeling his way, he crept down the staircase.
On the last step but one, he suddenly stumbled, fell, and barely
recovered himself by his firm hold of the banisters, in time to hear
Hetty's voice in a low imperious whisper:

"Good heavens, doctor! what do you want?"

"Oh Hetty! did I hurt you?" he exclaimed; "I never dreamed of your being
on the stairs."

"I sat down a minute to listen. It was all so still in the room, I was
frightened; and I must have been asleep a good while, I think, I am so
cold," answered Hetty; her teeth beginning to chatter, and her whole
body shaking with cold. "Why, how dark it is!" she continued; "the hall
lamp has gone out: let me get a match."

But Dr. Eben had her two cold hands in his. "No, Hetty," he said, "come
right back into the room: Raby is so sound asleep it will not wake him;
and Sally is asleep too;" and he led her slowly towards the door. The
night-lamp was burning low; its pale flame, and the flickering blaze of
the big hickory logs on the hearth, made a glimmering twilight, whose
fantastic lights and shadows shot out through the doorway into the gloom
of the hall. As the first of th