ed. "I would bear all the pain
for you if it were possible!"

She was silent a minute. Then she said:

"What a long time you have been away! And now I am too ill to play with
you!" Then a faint smile crossed her features. "See poor To-to!" she
exclaimed, feebly, as her eyes fell on a battered old doll in the
spangled dress of a carnival clown that lay at the foot of her bed.
"Poor dear old To-to! He will think I do not love him any more, because
my throat hurts me. Give him to me, papa!"

And as I obeyed her request she encircled the doll with one arm, while
she still clung to me with the other, and added:

"To-to remembers you, papa; you know you brought him from Rome, and he
is fond of you, too--but not as fond as I am!" And her dark eyes
glittered feverishly. Suddenly her glance fell on Assunta, whose gray
head was buried in her hands as she knelt.

"Assunta!"

The old woman looked up.

"Bambinetta!" she answered, and her aged voice trembled.

"Why are you crying?" inquired Stella with an air of plaintive
surprise. "Are you not glad to see papa?"

Her words were interrupted by a sharp spasm of pain which convulsed her
whole body--she gasped for breath--she was nearly suffocated. Assunta
and I raised her up gently and supported her against her pillows; the
agony passed slowly, but left her little face white and rigid, while
large drops of sweat gathered on her brow. I endeavored to soothe her.

"Darling, you must not talk," I whispered, imploringly; "try to be very
still--then the poor throat will not ache so much."

She looked at me wistfully. After a minute or two she said, gently:

"Kiss me, then, and I will be quite good."

I kissed her fondly, and she closed her eyes. Ten, twenty, thirty
minutes passed and she did not stir. At the end of that time the doctor
entered. He glanced at her, gave me a warning look, and remained
standing quietly at the foot of the bed. Suddenly the child woke, and
smiled divinely on all three of us.

"Are you in pain, my dear?" I softly asked.

"No!" she answered in a tiny voice, so faint and far away that we held
our breath to listen to it; "I am quite well now. Assunta must dress me
in my white frock again now papa is here. I knew he would come back!"

And she turned her eyes upon me with a look of bright intelligence.

"Her brain wanders," said the doctor, in a low, pitying voice; "it will
soon be over."

Stella did not hear him; she turned and nestled in my arm