odor of
black dye.

[Illustration: "_SHE COULD NOT HELP SEEING THAT SELINA FOUND SOME STRANGE
PLEASURE IN ALL THESE INCIDENTS OF A LAST ILLNESS_"]

In her mother's bedroom the same acid odor was in the air, and Jane
was sitting at the window with a piece of black sewing in her hands.
Jane's husband and John Maberly were standing at the foot of the bed,
silent and melancholy, looking as awkward as men always do in a
sick-room; Jane's stern gloom was tinged with a condescending pity
for beings so out of place. Mary Ann saw them all at the first glance.
Then she forgot everything; she was snuggling down against the bed,
making the little, tender, glad, sorry sounds a mother makes when she
has been separated from her baby.

When she lifted her head the men were leaving the room, John's face
working. Selina was there with the poultice. She took it from her. One
look into her mother's face had been enough. From that moment she
seemed to be holding her back by sheer force of will from the edge
over which she was slipping.

There was no merry gossip and laughter now, there were no love
stories, no monologues with pauses for smiles. Mary Ann felt that a
careless word or look would be enough to loosen that frail hold on
life. When the doctor came, he found his patient in charge of a stout
woman in a fresh linen dress, whose self-command was so perfect that
he did not waste many words in softening the opinion for which she
followed him to the door.

"Your mother's age is against her," he said. "The bronchitis in itself
is not alarming, but her heart is weak, and I fear you must not expect
her recovery."

He knew at once that she refused to accept his verdict, though she
only said, "I'd like to telegraph for our doctor at home, if you don't
mind."

When Dr. Corbett came, he confirmed the opinion.

"The bronchitis is no worse than usual," he added, "the treatment has
been the same; but she seems to have lost her grip."

"There's no reason why she shouldn't catch a hold of it again," said
poor Mary Ann, choking down her agony with the thought that she must
return immediately to her mother's room.

"I don't quite understand it," the doctor said, with a questioning
look. "The nursing--that's been good? Dr. Black tells me so."

"Yes, Jane and Selina are both good nurses, better'n what I am, if it
wasn't that Ma's used to me."

"And there's no obstacle to her recovery that you know of?" Mary Ann
shook her head. "Well, Mi