a child in her thirty odd years, and
abused neither. Riding and the cultivation of her little garden gave
her sufficient exercise. And yet the unexpected occurred! The day after
Starbottle left, Dr. Blair was summoned hastily to the hotel. Mrs.
MacGlowrie had been found lying senseless in a dead faint in the
passage outside the dining room. In his hurried flight thither with the
messenger he could learn only that she had seemed to be in her usual
health that morning, and that no one could assign any cause for her
fainting.

He could find out little more when he arrived and examined her as she
lay pale and unconscious on the sofa of her sitting room. It had not
been thought necessary to loosen her already loose dress, and indeed he
could find no organic disturbance. The case was one of sudden nervous
shock--but this, with his knowledge of her indolent temperament, seemed
almost absurd. They could tell him nothing but that she was evidently on
the point of entering the dining room when she fell unconscious. Had
she been frightened by anything? A snake or a rat? Miss Morvin
was indignant! The widow of MacGlowrie--the repeller of
grizzlies--frightened at "sich"! Had she been upset by any previous
excitement, passion, or the receipt of bad news? No!--she "wasn't that
kind," as the doctor knew. And even as they were speaking he felt the
widow's healthy life returning to the pulse he was holding, and giving
a faint tinge to her lips. Her blue-veined eyelids quivered slightly
and then opened with languid wonder on the doctor and her surroundings.
Suddenly a quick, startled look contracted the yellow brown pupils of
her eyes, she lifted herself to a sitting posture with a hurried glance
around the room and at the door beyond. Catching the quick, observant
eyes of Dr. Blair, she collected herself with an effort, which Dr. Blair
felt in her pulse, and drew away her wrist.

"What is it? What happened?" she said weakly.

"You had a slight attack of faintness," said the doctor cheerily, "and
they called me in as I was passing, but you're all right now."

"How pow'ful foolish," she said, with returning color, but her eyes
still glancing at the door, "slumping off like a green gyrl at nothin'."

"Perhaps you were startled?" said the doctor.

Mrs. MacGlowrie glanced up quickly and looked away. "No!--Let me see!
I was just passing through the hall, going into the dining room,
when--everything seemed to waltz round me--and I was of