derful--it is splendid. Agnes
must be taught to do my present work. I'll train her for the next three
months; and then, perhaps, in the winter I can join Dorothy in London.
Dear father, he is nervous about mother; but while he is there, no harm
can come to her. I do not believe one could live without the other.
Well, well, I feel excited and nervous myself. I had better follow
father's example, and go to bed."

CHAPTER VII.

Effie's little room faced the east. She never drew down her blind at
night, and the sun was shining all over her face when her mother came in
the next morning to call her.

Mrs. Staunton, standing in her nightdress in the middle of the room,
called Effie in a shrill voice.

"What in the world is the matter?" said her daughter, sitting up, and
pushing back her hair from her eyes.

"What I feared," said Mrs. Staunton. "I am not going to break down;
don't think it for a minute. I am as well as possible." She trembled all
over as she spoke. There was a purple spot on one cheek, the other was
deadly pale. A blue tint surrounded her lips. "I am perfectly well,"
continued Mrs. Staunton, breathing in a labored way. "It is only that I
have got a bit of a---- Your father is ill, Effie. He has got
it--the--dip--dip--diphtheria. He is almost choking. Get up, child; get
up."

"Yes, mother," said Effie.

She tumbled out of bed. Her pretty cheeks were flushed with sleep; her
eyes, bright and shining, turned toward the eastern light for a moment.

"Oh, mother," she said, with a sudden burst of feeling, "do, do let us
keep up our courage! Nothing will save him if we lose our courage,
mother."

"We won't," said Mrs. Staunton; "and that's what I came to speak about.
He must have good nursing--the very best. Effie, I want you to get Miss
Fraser to come here."

"Miss Fraser! But will she leave little Freda Harvey?"

"She must leave her--the child is completely out of danger--anyone can
nurse her now. She must leave her and come here, and you must go and
fetch her. Your father may lose his life in the cause of that little
child. There is not a moment to lose--get up, Effie. You can go at once
to The Grange. Go, go quickly and bring Dorothy Fraser. We none of us
can nurse him as she will. She will do it. He has been murmuring in his
sleep about her, about something she did for little Freda, clasping his
throat all the time and suffocating. One glance showed me what ailed him
when I awoke this mornin