tion: "JANE AND SELINA ... LOOKED AT PATIENT AND NURSE WITH
DISAPPROVING GLOOM"]

Mary Ann gathered the dress goods together and threw them in a heap on
the sofa. "There, I'm sorry I showed them to you," she cried; "you've
got me almost turned against them. I declare, I'd be melancholy in
two minutes more. Now you listen to me, Selina'n'Jane. There's no need
to worry about Ma's preparations for the next world; she's not
thinking of leaving this world yet, and there's no reason why she
should. The day you two go away, she'll be standing at the gate to say
good-by to you, just the same as she always is. You see if she's not,
Selina'n'Jane."

She left the room with something as like a flounce as her figure would
permit. Stealing softly into the half-darkened bedroom at the head of
the stairs, she stood looking down at the sleeping woman in the bed.
The indignant moisture in her eyes turned to a mist of tenderness that
blotted out the sight until a few drops formed and fell.

She was too unsuspicious to observe an unsleeplike flickering of the
eyelids. She turned to tiptoe out of the room again. There was a quick
peep, a look of relief, a husky whisper, "Is that you, Mary Ann?"

"Well now, I never did see anything like the regular way you wake up
at medicine time," Mary Ann said, opening the shutters and consulting
her watch. "Anybody'd think you had an alarm inside of you to go off
at the right time."

She administered the dose and then went on with a cheerful monologue.
She had got into this habit in the sick-room, because her mother hated
silence and had to save her own voice.

"What kept me so long was that everybody I met wanted to stop me and
ask how you were. Everybody seemed pleased to hear you were getting
along so nicely. Mrs. Dowling said Dr. Corbett told her you were the
most satisfactory patient he had, because you always did everything he
told you and always got well."

The sick woman smiled up at her. She had a smile that came and went
easily, and Mary Ann had become skilful in the art of conducting a
conversation in such a way that it served as well as words.

"And Caroline Sibbet said to tell you she was counting on going with
us to the reception to the minister, and she didn't believe she'd go
at all unless you were well by then."

It was a wistful smile now.

"So I told her she needn't be afraid, you'd be there."

A smile of appeal, as if to ask, "Do you really think so?"

Mary Ann gave her