octor. "Thank the Almighty!"

"I believe she will certainly recover," replied Dorothy.

"It is your doing, nurse."

"With God's blessing," she answered, bowing her head.

The doctor asked her one or two more questions.

"Now, the thing is, to keep up her strength," said Dorothy in
conclusion. "She must have every imaginable form of nourishment. But
that can be done, for I mean to undertake the management of her food
myself. Please, Dr. Staunton, will you tell Mrs. Harvey the good news
that her child is out of danger?"

"Yes," said the doctor; "but ought not that to be your own reward?"

"No, no; I don't want to go near her. I wish you to do all in your power
to keep her from the room. I believe that when she knows that her child
is really on the mend she will be guided by your wishes and those of her
husband. I have a kind of feeling,--I may be wrong, of course,--but I
have a kind of feeling that God will stay His hand in this matter, and
that the plague will not spread. Now, the thing is to think of the
mother. I suppose you will attend to her when her baby is born?"

"She has asked me to do so."

"Then, don't you think," said Dorothy, after a pause for
reflection,--"don't you think you might leave little Freda to me? I am
willing to be shut up in this part of the house with the child and one
of the maids, a girl called Rhoda, who has been most helpful to me
during the last twenty-four hours. If you are wanted, doctor, you are on
the spot; but, unless there is occasion, don't you think it would be
best for you not to come into this room?"

"It would be certainly the safest course as regards the mother," pursued
the doctor in a thoughtful tone. "You are a wonderful woman, nurse. I'll
go and consult the Squire."

CHAPTER V.

One day, a week after the events related in the last chapter, Dr.
Staunton suddenly walked into the little parlor where Effie and her
mother were sitting together.

Effie sprang up at sight of him. Some needlework over which she had been
busy fell to the floor. A rush of color came into her cheeks.

"Oh, father, father!" she exclaimed, "how delightful it is to see you
again! Oh, how glad we are! Is little Freda really better? How is Mrs.
Harvey? And--have you come back to stay, father?"

"I can't answer such a lot of questions all together, child," said the
doctor, with a smile. "Yes, I have come home to stay. The fact is, I am
tired out, and simply with doing nothing. Ever