ep. Her knees were huddled up almost to her chin. Her face was
white, and bore marks of tears. She scarcely looked up when Flower ran
to her.

"Polly! Polly! How glad I am you at least are not very ill."

"Is that you, Flower?" asked Polly.

She did not seem surprised, or in any way affected.

"Yes, my leg does still ache very much. But what of that? What of
anything now? He is worse! They have sent for another doctor. The doctor
from London is upstairs; he's with him. I'm waiting here to catch him
when he comes down, for I must know the very worst."

"The very worst!" echoed Flower in a feeble tone.

She tumbled down somehow on to the stair beside Polly, and the next
instant her death-like face lay in Polly's lap.

"Now, my dear, you need not be in the least frightened," said a shrill
voice in Polly's ears. "A most troublesome young person! a most
troublesome! She has just fainted; that's all. Let me fetch a jug of
cold water to pour over her."

"Is that _you_, Aunt Maria?" said Polly. "Oh, yes, there was a telegram,
but we forgot all about it. And is that Scorpion, and is he going to
bark? But he mustn't! Please kneel down here, Aunt Maria, and hold
Flower's head. Whatever happens, Scorpion mustn't bark. Give him to me!"

Before Mrs. Cameron had time to utter a word or in any way to
expostulate, she found herself dragged down beside Flower, Flower's head
transferred to her capacious lap, and the precious Scorpion snatched out
of her arms. Polly's firm, muscular young fingers tightly held the dog's
mouth, and in an instant Scorpion and she were out of sight.
Notwithstanding all his fighting and struggling and desperate efforts to
free himself, she succeeded in carrying him to a little deserted summer
pagoda at a distant end of the garden. Here she locked him in, and
allowed him to suffer both cold and hunger for the remainder of the
night.

There are times when even the most unkind are softened. Mrs. Cameron was
not a sympathetic person. She was a great philanthropist, it is true,
and was much esteemed, especially by those people who did not know her
well. But love, the real name for what the Bible calls charity, seldom
found an entrance into her heart. The creature she devoted most
affection to was Scorpion. But now, as she sat in the still house, which
all the time seemed to throb with a hidden intense life; when she heard
in the far distance doors opening gently and stifled sobs and moans
coming from mor