e than one young throat; when she looked down at the
death-like face of Flower--she really did forget herself, and rose for
once to the occasion.

Very gently--for she was a strong woman--she lifted Flower, and
carried her into the Doctor's study. There she laid her on a sofa, and
gave her restoratives, and when Flower opened her dazed eyes she spoke
to her more kindly than she had done yet.

"I have ordered something for you, which you are to take at once," she
said. "Ah! here it is! Thank you, Alice. Now, Daisy, drink this off at
once."

It was a beaten-up egg in milk and brandy, and when Flower drank it she
felt no longer giddy, and was able to sit up and look around her.

In the meantime Polly and all the other children remained still as mice
outside the Doctor's door. They had stolen on tiptoe from different
quarters of the old house to this position, and now they stood perfectly
still, not looking at one another or uttering a sound, but with their
eyes fixed with pathetic earnestness and appeal at the closed door. When
would the doctors come out? When would the verdict be given? Minutes
passed. The children found this time of tension an agony.

"I can't bear it!" sobbed Firefly at last.

But the others said, "Hush!" so peremptorily, and with such a total
disregard for any one person's special emotions, that the little girl's
hysterical fit was nipped in the bud.

At last there was a sound of footsteps within the room, and the local
practitioner, accompanied by the great physician from London, opened the
door carefully and came out.

"Go in and sit with your father," said one of the doctors to Helen.

Without a word she disappeared into the darkened room, and all the
others, including little Pearl in Nurse's arms, followed the medical men
downstairs. They went into the Doctor's study, where Flower was still
lying very white and faint on the sofa. Fortunately for the peace of the
next quarter of an hour Mrs. Cameron had taken herself off in a vain
search for Scorpion.

"Now," said Polly, when they were all safely in the room--she took no
notice of Flower; she did not even see her--"now please speak; please
tell us the whole truth at once."

She went up and laid her hand on the London physician's arm.

"The whole truth? But I cannot do that, my dear young lady," he said, in
hearty, genial tones. "Bless me!" turning to the other doctor, "do all
these girls and boys belong to Maybright? And so you want th