luncheon," sinking back on her pillows again. "Ah Lee will know. I don't
seem able to think clearly of anything." She sighed, and presently was
asleep again, or seemed to be so, and Clover went back to her work.

So it went all day,--broken slumbers, confused wakings, increasing
fever, and occasional moments of bewilderment. Clover was sure that it
was a serious illness, and sent Lionel down with a note to say that
either Geoff or Clarence must go in at once and bring out Dr. Hope, that
she herself was a fixture at the other house for the night at least, and
would like a number of things sent up, of which she inclosed a list.
This note threw the family into a wild dismay. Life in the High Valley
was only meant for well people, as Elsie had once admitted. Illness at
once made the disadvantages of so lonely and inaccessible a place
apparent,--with the doctor sixteen miles distant, and no medicines or
other appliances of a sick-room to be had short of St. Helen's.

Dr. Hope reached them late in the evening. He pronounced that Imogen had
an attack of "mountain fever," a milder sort of typhoid not uncommon in
the higher elevations of Colorado. He hoped it would be a light case,
gave full directions, and promised to send out medicines and to come
again in three days. Then he departed, and Clover, as she watched him
ride down the trail, felt as a shipwrecked mariner might, left alone on
a desert island,--astray and helpless, and quite at a loss as to what
first to do.

There were too many things to be done, however, to allow of her long
indulging this feeling, and presently her wits cleared and she was able
to confront the task before her with accustomed sense and steadiness.
Imogen could not be left alone, that was evident; and it was equally
evident that she herself was the person who must stay with her. Elsie
could not be spared from her baby, and Geoffrey, beside being more
especially interested in the Youngs, would be far more amenable and less
refractory than Clarence at a curtailment of his domestic privileges.
So, pluckily and reasonably, she "buckled to" the work so plainly set
for her, established herself and her belongings in the spare chamber,
gathered the reins of the household and the sick-room into her hands,
and began upon what she knew might prove to be a long, hard bout of
patience and vigilance, resolved to do her best each day as it came and
let the next day take care of itself, minding nothing, no fatigu