t, to think of it. Strength will come of itself."

"Oh, no; that is impossible. Besides, the doctor has ordered panada, and
I am responsible to him for your safety. Come, now, be reasonable. This
is very nice, seasoned with madeira and nutmeg."

Making a strong effort to overcome my repugnance, I received one
spoonful of the proffered aliment, then sank back on my pillow, soothed
and comforted, not more by the unexpectedly good effects of the
compound, than the associations it conjured up, of my sick childhood, of
Mrs. Austin, and of Dr. Pemberton.

"Ah! you smile; that is a good sign," said the woman; "favorable every
way. We shall have no more delirium now, I hope; no more 'bears and
serpents' about the berth; no more calls for 'Bertie' and 'Captain
Wentworth,' and you will soon be able to tell us all about yourself and
your people--all we want to know."

I must have lapsed again into reverie rather than slumber, from which I
was partly aroused by whispering voices at the door, one of which seemed
familiar to me. Yet this fact or fancy made little impression on me at
the moment, feeble and wretched as was my will, undiscriminating as were
my faculties.

And when the door opened, and a lady entered, I did not seek to inquire
about her interlocutor. Respectfully rising from her seat beside me, my
companion left it vacant for her, to whom she introduced me as her
mistress, and stood, work in hand, sewing beneath the skylight, while
the new-comer remained in the state-room.

A handsome woman, tall and fashionably attired, apparently between
thirty and forty years of age, square face, dark-eyed, rosy-cheeked, and
with curling hair, approached me with uplifted hands and eyebrows as I
lay gazing calmly upon her; for my food and slumber together had
strengthened and revived me wonderfully in the last few hours, and my
senses were again collected.

"Awake, and herself again, as I live, even if we cannot say yet
truthfully 'clothed and in her right mind.'--Eh, Clayton?" with a
sneering simper; "and what eyes, what teeth, to be sure! Then the
dreadful redness is going away, though the skin will scale, of course;
but no matter for that; all the fairer in the end. And what a special
mercy that her hair is saved!--You have to thank _me_ for that, young
lady. I would not let the ship's doctor touch a strand of it--not a
strand. 'One does not grow a yard and a half of hair in a month, or a
year, doctor,' I observed, 'and a wo