a nice woman who will come in and help Deb, for of course I cannot
leave Marcus any longer. I am to go home the day after to-morrow. Deb
will sleep on the couch in the sitting-room. She will have to give
nourishment every two hours, but Deb manages to sleep with one eye
open, as I tell her. I am to go for a couple of hours every afternoon,
that will allow her to have a little rest. Marcus thinks this will
work excellently. Oh, how glad I shall be to be at home again and look
after him!"

"You want looking after yourself, dear," returned Greta,
affectionately. And then Alwyn came into the room with Dot on his
shoulder, but she clamoured to go to her mammy.

"How do you think Mrs. Alwyn Gaythorne looks?" asked Alwyn,
mischievously. "She does me credit, does she not? By-the-bye, Greta,
do you think father will like us to have coffee with him in the library
this afternoon?"

"I told Phoebe that we would have it up here; shall I go and ask him,
Alwyn?"

"Do, love; the attention will please him, and I am sure Mrs. Luttrell
will not mind." Then as Greta left the room, he turned to Olivia and
said in a tone of deep feeling,--

"She looks well and happy, don't you think so? Oh, Mrs. Luttrell,
every day I feel more what a treasure I have. She is an embodied
sunbeam. I never knew anyone so gentle and yet so bright. How my
father will love her when he knows her better." And then, as his
wife's step sounded in the corridor, he sprang from his seat to open
the door.

CHAPTER XXIV.

"NOT YET."

"But here I bring within my trembling hand,
This will of mine, a thing that seemeth small,
And Thou alone, O Lord, can understand,
How when I yield Thee this, I yield mine all."--_Anon_.

It was some time before Aunt Madge could be lifted on to the couch in
the sitting-room, and even then Deb declared that she was not the
weight of a child of eight or nine.

"There is nothing of her, Miss Olive," she grumbled. "She is worn to
such a shadow. Tire my arms, indeed--I could lift a heavier weight
than that," and Deb gave one of her ominous sniffs, and went off to her
kitchen to shed a few tears in private.

All those weeks Olivia had been unremitting in her attentions, and all
other visits were interdicted; but the friends at Galvaston House
showed their sympathy in every possible way. Mr. Gaythorne sent choice
old wine and game, and Greta and Alwyn kept the invalid supplied with
fruit and flow