sank
on her knees before the prostrate child.

"It's nothing very serious, Miss Martin," the young surgeon reassured
her, "delicate children of this type are likely to have these
seizures. It's not exactly a fainting fit. It belongs rather to the
family of hysteria."

"Wasn't it the peaches?" Nancy asked fearfully. "They--they had a
little brandy in them."

"They may have been a contributing cause," Dr. Sunderland acknowledged,
"but the child's condition is primarily responsible. Let her alone
until she rouses,--then give her hot water with a pinch of soda in it
at fifteen-minute intervals. Keep her feet hot and her head cold and
don't try to move her until after dark, when it's cooler."

"All right," Nancy said, "I'll take care of her."

"Here comes her poor father, now," the lady in taffeta announced with
the dramatic commiseration of the self-invited auditor. "He thought an
iced towel on her head might make her feel better. Is the dear little
thing an orphan--I mean a half orphan?"

The assembled company seeming disinclined to respond, she repeated her
inquiry to Collier Pratt himself, as with the susceptive grace that
characterized all his movements, he swung the compress he was carrying
sharply to and fro to preserve its temperature in transit. "Is the
poor little thing a half orphan?"

"The poor little thing is nine-tenths orphan, madam," said Collier
Pratt, "that is--the only creature to whom she can turn for protection
is the apology for a parent that you see before you. Would you mind
stepping aside and giving me a little more room to work in?"

"Not at all." Irony was wasted on the indomitable sympathizer in blue.
"Hasn't she really anybody but you to take care of her?"

Collier Pratt arranged the towel precisely in position over the little
girl's forehead, smoothing with careful fingers the cloud of dusky
hair that fell about her face.

"She has not," he answered with some savagery.

"Hasn't she any women friends or relatives that would be willing to
take charge of her?"

"No, madam."

"Then some woman that has no child of her own to care for ought to
adopt her, and relieve you of the responsibility. It's a shame and
disgrace the way these New York women with no natural ties of their
own go around crying for something to do, when there are sweet little
children like this suffering for a mother's care. I'd adopt her myself
if I was able to. I certainly would."

"I'm perfectly willing to give