was the best hand at pastry in the house. Yes, I'll make the tart
myself. Here is sixpence, Effie; run to the dairy and get some cream.
And listen, love, as you go through the house you might tell Jane to get
the pastry-board ready."

"All right, mother, I'll tell her to put it in the larder. You must not
go into the hot kitchen to make that tart."

"Very well, child, I'll remember. Now run and get the cream."

Effie left her mother standing by the raspberry plantation. She was
pulling the ripe raspberries and dropping them into a large cabbage leaf
which she held. Her slender but weak figure was drawn up to its full
height. There was a look of nervous energy about her which Effie had not
observed for many a long day. The curious phase into which her mother
had entered had an alarming effect upon the young girl. It frightened
her far more than her father's look of lassitude and the burning touch
of his hands. She tried to turn her thoughts from it. After all, why
should she become nervous herself, and meet trouble halfway?

She went across the village street, and entering the pretty dairy, asked
for the cream.

"Is it true, Miss Staunton, that the doctor has come back again?" asked
the woman of the shop, as she handed her the jug of cream across the
counter.

"Yes, Mrs. Pattens, it is quite true," replied Effie. "There's good news
now at The Grange. Mrs. Harvey is doing splendidly, and little Freda is
nearly well again."

"Well, it is a good thing the doctor can be spared," said the woman; "we
want him bad enough here, and it seemed cruel-like that he should have
been sort of buried alive at The Grange."

"He is only able to be spared now," said Effie, "because he has secured
the services of a very wonderful nurse."

"Oh, one of the Fraser girls," said the woman, in a tone of
contempt--"those newcomers, who have not been settled in the place above
a year. For my part, I don't hold with lady-nurses. I am told they are
all stuck-up and full of airs, and that they need a sight more waiting
on than the patients themselves. When you get a lady-nurse into the
house you have to think more of the nurse than of the patient, that's
what I am told."

"It is not true," replied Effie, her eyes flashing angrily--"at least,"
she continued, "it is not true in the case of Nurse Fraser. You must get
my father to talk to you about her some day. I am afraid I haven't time
to spare now. Good-evening, Mrs. Pattens."

Effie we