e until now, when the doctor gave little hope of her
recovery.

"She does not know us," Flossie said, "and she talks so piteously of her
old home, and wants us to take her back to the garden where the birds
are singing in the yews, and where she says there is just one place
between her father and the wall, and that is for her. Oh, Mr. Jerrold,
what if she should die!"

"She must not--she shall not," Grey answered her, energetically, and by
the sense of bitter pain in his heart he knew that Bessie McPherson was
more to him than any other girl could ever be, and if she died the world
would lose much of its brightness for him.

He had never forgotten her, and over and over again in both his sleeping
and waking hours there had arisen before him a vision of her face, as he
had seen it when first he went to Stoneleigh, and as he saw it there
last, pale and worn and sad, but inexpressibly lovely and sweet. And
now, Flossie told him, she was dying, and for a moment he grew cold and
faint; then he rallied, and saying, "I will go and see Mrs. McPherson,"
bade Flossie good-morning, and started for No.----, fourth floor.

His knock was answered by Daisy herself, whose face was very pale, and
whose eyes were swollen and red with watching and tears. All her better
nature had been aroused; the mother love was in the ascendant now, and
in her anxiety for her child she had forgotten much of her coquetry and
was almost womanly in her grief.

"You are Mrs. McPherson?" Grey said to her, as she stepped out into the
hall and closed the door of the sick-room.

She bowed in the affirmative, and he continued:

"I am Grey Jerrold, I knew your husband; I was with him when he died. I
have just heard from Miss Meredith of your daughter's illness, and have
come to offer you my services. Is there anything I can do for you?"

Daisy's tears fell like rain as she replied:

"Oh, thank you, Mr. Jerrold; it will be something to know I have a
friend, for we are all alone. Neil is in Cairo, and there is no one
beside him on whom we have any claim. I have heard Bessie speak of you;
only last night she called you by name in her delirium."

"Yes, I heard her," Grey said, explaining that he occupied the adjoining
room, and thus had learned that there was some one sick near him.

In an instant Daisy's face brightened as something of her old managing
nature asserted itself, and in a few moments she adroitly contrived to
let Grey know how very much alon