or Mr. Wilkinson." Doctor Halbert told the joyful news to the
Squire and the assembled company. The clergymen would not arrive till
tea time, so Mr. Carruthers, as the priest of the family, gathered the
household together, and, in simple language but full of heart, thanked
God for the young life preserved. The doctor went away home, but without
Miss Fanny, and, as he drove off, remarked to the Squire, significantly:
"There is no medicine in the world like love," a sentiment with which
the Squire thoroughly agreed.

The evening was a very pleasant one. Messrs. Errol and Perrowne rejoiced
to hear the good news from the sick room, and Mrs. Carmichael gave the
former to understand, in a vague, yet to his intelligence perfectly
comprehensible, way, that the assurance of her daughter's future
happiness would remove a large obstacle in the way of her becoming the
mistress of the manse. Mr. Perrowne appreciated Dr. Halbert's
consideration in leaving his daughter at Bridesdale. The Du Plessis
quartette were even farther advanced than the Carmichael four; and
consequently Miss Graves was left to the entertainment of Mr. Douglas.
The patient upstairs awoke, feeling very stiff and sore, but quite
rational, and almost too happy to speak, which was a good thing, as his
strength was that of a baby. He had to be lifted and turned, and propped
up and let down, which the Squire generally did for him, under the head
nurse's instructions, received from the doctor. Then he had to be fed,
and begged to have his moustache curtailed, so as to facilitate the
task. Two little hands, a comb, and a pair of scissors went to work,
and, without annihilating the hirsute adornment, so trimmed it as to
reveal a well-curved upper lip, hitherto almost invisible. It is
astonishing what a sense of proprietorship this "barberous operation,"
as she termed it, developed in the heiress, who thought more of it than
of her prospective thousands. It was past ten o'clock before she
consented to yield her post to the devoted Wilkinson, who already began
to look upon her as a sister, and to whom she gave directions, with all
the gravity and superior dignity of an experienced nurse. The colonel
would willingly have taken his turn in the sick room, but Mr. Terry, Mr.
Douglas, and the Squire insisted on relieving him. Mr. Bangs was away
with Ben Toner and two guns hunting for the Grinstun man. The watchers
got along very well through the night, with the exception of the