g. "Don't
look so imploringly, Agnes; you shall see him before long. Miss Danton,
have the goodness to accompany me. If we find him much better, I will
let you break the news to him and then fetch Agnes. But mind, madame,"
raising a warning finger to the sobbing little woman, "no hysterics! I
can't have my patient agitated. You promise to be very quiet, don't
you!"

"Oh, yes! I'll try."

"Very good. Now, Miss Danton."

He ran up the stairs, followed by Kate. The sick man lay, as he had left
him, quietly looking at the shaded lamp, very feeble--very, very feeble
and wasted. The Doctor sat down beside him, felt his pulse, and asked
him a few questions, to which the faint replies were lucid and
intelligible.

"No fever to-night. No delirium. You're fifty per cent. better. We will
have you all right now, in no time. Kate has brought an infallible
remedy."

The sick man looked at his sister wonderingly.

"Can you bear the shock of some very good news, Harry darling?" Kate
said stooping over him.

"Good news!" he repeated feebly, and with an incredulous look. "Good
news for me!"

"Yes, indeed, thou man of little faith! The best news you ever heard.
You won't agitate yourself, will you, if I tell you?"

Doctor Frank arose before he could reply.

"I leave you to tell him by yourself. I hear the dinner-bell; so adieu."

He descended to the dining-room and took his place at the table. Captain
Danton's new-found daughter he compelled to take poor Rose's vacant
place; but Agnes did not even make a pretence of eating anything. She
sat with her hands clasped tightly in her lap, her eyes fixed steadily
on the door, trying with all her might to be calm and wait.

The appetite of the whole family was considerably impaired by the
revelation just made, and all waited anxiously the return of Kate. In
half an hour the dining-room door opened, and that young lady appeared,
very pale, and with traces of tears on her face, but smiling withal.

Agnes sprang up breathlessly.

"Come," Kate said, holding out her hand; "he is waiting for you!"

With a cry of joy Agnes hurried out of the room and upstairs.

At the green baize door Kate restrained her a moment.

"You must be very quiet, Agnes--very calm, and not excite or agitate
him."

"Oh, yes! yes! Oh, let me go!"

Miss Danton opened the door and let her in. In a moment she was kneeling
by the bedside, her arms around his weak head, showering kisses and
tears on his pale,