reeted her before she was well in the room. It sounded husky and
strained.

"Muriel! Dear Muriel! I'm so glad you've come. I've wanted you so you
can't think. Where's Nick?"

"He is coming, dearest." Muriel went forward to the bed, and took in
hers the two hands eagerly extended.

The child was lying in an uneasy position, her hair streaming in a
disordered tangle about her flushed face. She was shivering violently
though the hands Muriel held were burning. "You came all through this
awful storm," she whispered. "It was lovely of you, dear. I hope you
weren't frightened."

Muriel sat down beside her. "And you have been left all alone," she
said.

"I didn't mind," gasped Olga. "Mrs. Ellis--that's the cook--was here
at first. But she was such an ass about the thunder that I sent her
away. I expect she's in the coal cellar."

A gleam of fun shone for an instant in her eyes, and was gone. The
fevered hands closed tightly in Muriel's hold. "I feel so ill," she
murmured, "so ill."

"Where is it, darling?" Muriel asked her tenderly.

"It's, it's all over me," moaned Olga. "My head worst, and my throat.
My throat is dreadful. It makes me want to cry."

There was little that Muriel could do to ease her. She tied back the
tossing hair, and rearranged the bedclothes; then sat down by her
side, hoping she might get some sleep.

Not long after, Nick crept in on slippered feet, but Olga heard him
instantly, and started up with out-flung arms. "Nick, darling, I want
you! I want you! Come quite close! I think I'm going to die. Don't let
me, Nick!"

Muriel rose to make room for him, but he motioned her back sharply;
then knelt down himself by the child's pillow and took her head upon
his arm.

"Stick to it, sweetheart!" he murmured softly. "There's a medicine man
coming, and you'll be better presently." Olga cuddled against him
with a sigh, and comforted by the close holding of his arm dropped
presently into an uneasy doze.

Nick never stirred from his position, and mutely Muriel sat and
watched him. There was a wonderful tenderness about him just then, a
softness with which she was strangely familiar, but which almost she
had forgotten. If she had never seen him before that moment, she knew
that she would have liked him.

He seemed to have wholly forgotten her presence. His entire attention
was concentrated upon the child. His lips twitched from time to time,
and she knew that he was very anxious, intensely impatien