h
I won't say that I shouldn't prefer Dr. Harrison in the long run as
surest to bring his patient through. I think I'll just go up with this
myself to Phebe, Mrs. Lane. I suppose she's longing for visitors by now,
poor soul!"

"Well, I dare say. You know her room,--just at the head of the stairs. Go
right up, and I'll step out to market."

"Now, my dear," said Mrs. Hardcastle, rustling into Phebe's room, "I
thought I would come up and have a look at you myself to make sure how
you were. No, don't move. You do look pale, but that's all. Glad to see
your pretty face isn't harmed. Why, I heard one whole side of it was
about burned off. I've brought you some wine-jelly, my dear."

"She had a lot yesterday, Pheeb did," said Olly, who was curled up with a
geography in a corner of the room and furtively cutting Europe out of the
maps. "She doesn't need any more."

"Oh, but this is some of my own make. This is quite different from
anybody else's," declared Mrs. Hardcastle. "Phebe remembers _my_ jelly of
old, don't you, dear?"

Phebe smiled faintly. All she remembered at the moment was being
invariably requested by the good lady to come and make it for her
whenever she gave a party.

"I thought I heard talking and so I ventured to come up too," said a
timid voice, and Miss Delano tiptoed softly in. "Phebe, my dear child, my
dear child!" and the soft-hearted little old maid stooped to kiss Phebe's
pale cheek, and straightway began to whimper.

"Come, none of that," said Mrs. Upjohn's peremptory tones, as that lady
swept into the little room, seeming to fill it all to overflowing. "I met
the doctor just now and he said Phebe was to be kept perfectly quiet.
Don't let's have any weeping over her. She wants cheering up, and she
isn't quite dead yet, you know, though really the evening before last,
Phebe, I heard that you weren't expected to live the night through."

"How ridiculous!" said Gerald, impatiently. "Miss Delano, will you
have a chair?"

"Thank you, no, dear. I'll just sit here on the bed," said the
little old dame, humbly, anxious not to make any one any trouble. "O
Phebe, my dear!"

Phebe smiled at her affectionately, and Mrs. Hardcastle, who was on the
point of leaving when Mrs. Upjohn came in, sat down again to ask that
lady about the character of a servant whom she had just engaged.

"I thought I should have died when I heard it," said Miss Delano, patting
Phebe's cheek. "Poor dear, poor dear! And they sa