seemed to
dislike her. She wore her gipsy costume of scarlet, a little costume
that she had worn at home at a similar party, and a dainty scarlet
mask would be added later on. She looked so graceful and winsome, as
she tapped at the door, that Lady Jane exclaimed as she admitted her:

"Why, you darling! What a picture you have made of yourself! I must
give you a good kiss--two of them! One for myself and Gwen and one for
the Aunt Betty you love."

Then the lady led her in to the low chair beside Gwen's bed, with a
tenderness so motherly that Dorothy lost all feeling of awkwardness
with the sick girl.

"Now, my child, I must hear every detail of that afternoon. My darling
daughter is really much better. I want her to get over this dread of
what is past, and safely so. I'm sure your story of the matter will
help her to think of it calmly."

She waited for Dorothy to begin, and at last she did, making as light
of the affair as of an ordinary playground happening.

"Why, it wasn't anything. Really, it wasn't, except that Gwen took
such a cold and grieved so because other folks had to find where the
hidden cascade was. She just got so eager with her drawing that she
didn't notice how close she got to the edge of the rock. If I had
stayed awake, instead of going to sleep, I should have seen and caught
her before she slipped. I can't forgive myself for that."

The Lady Jane shook a protesting head.

"That was no fault in you, Dorothy. Go on."

"When I waked up, she was in the water, and she didn't understand how
to get out. She couldn't swim, you know, but I can. So, course, I just
jumped in and caught her. There was a big branch bent down low and I
caught hold of that. She caught hold of me, but not both my arms, and
so--so--I could pull us both out."

Dorothy did not add that her arm had been so strained she could not
yet use it without pain.

"Oh! thank God for you, my dear!" cried the mother, laying her hand
upon Gwendolyn's shoulder, who had turned toward the wall and lay with
her face hidden. "And after that? Somebody said you stripped off your
own jacket and wrapped it around her."

"It wasn't as nice as hers, but you see she was cold, and I thought
she wouldn't mind for once. I borrowed her bathrobe once and she
didn't like it, and now she'd borrowed my jacket and didn't like that,
I suppose."

"Like it! Doubtless it helped to save her life, too, or her from
pneumonia. Oh! if you hadn't been there! If-