a minute. It was very dull, but worse was to follow. On the morning of
the sixth day, Maudie woke with a headache, and a bad pain in her
throat, and bravely as she tried to bear it, it was plain to be seen
that the poor little girl was suffering very much. Martin would not let
her get up, and an hour or two after breakfast, Hoodie, sitting alone
and very disconsolate in the day-nursery, heard Dr. Reynolds and her
mother coming up-stairs. She jumped up and ran to meet them.

"Mamma," she said, "Martin won't let me play with Maudie, and I've
nothing to do. Martin is very cross."

Mrs. Caryll looked gravely at Hoodie.

"Hoodie," she said, "you _must_ be obedient."

"And Miss Maudie doesn't want her, ma'am," said Martin, appearing at the
door of Maudie's room. "She can't bear the least noise; and any way it's
better for Miss Hoodie not to be near her, isn't it, sir?" she asked,
turning to the doctor.

He shrugged his shoulders.

"As to infection," he said, "separating them now is a chance the more,
that's all one can say. But one must do one's best. And in any case the
child is better out of a fevered atmosphere. I would prepare another
room for her, I think," he added to Mrs. Caryll, and then they both went
into Maudie's room, and Hoodie heard no more.

Hoodie sat by herself, drumming her little fat legs on the side of the
table.

"I wonder what they mean," she said to herself. "I wonder what the
doctor means about affection. That's loving--at least people always put
it at the end of their letters whether they're loving or not. I think
people tells lots of stories when they'se big--_lotser_ than when
they'se little. And it's all that horrid Martin that's stoppened my
going into Maudie's room--I don't believe Maudie said she didn't want
me."

Just then Martin put her head out at the doorway of the inner room.

"Miss Hoodie," she said, "please ring the bell--there's no bell in
here--and when Jane comes up, tell her to send Lucy to speak to me at
the other door--the door that opens to the passage."

Hoodie executed the commission with great alacrity--even having a
message to give was better than having nothing at all to do, and ringing
the bell had always been greatly after Hoodie's own heart.

Somewhat to her surprise, a few minutes after Jane had gone down again
in search of Lucy, Lucy herself came into the nursery.

"You were to go to the _other_ door. What a time you've been of coming
up," said Hoodie, p