m good, they all said.

It seemed as if a long time passed before the doctor came; from Sir Tom
to the youngest kitchen-wench, the scullery-maid, all were in suspense.
There was but one breath, long drawn and stifled, when he came into the
house. He was a long time in the nursery, and when he came out he went
on talking to those who accompanied him. "You had better shut off this
part of the house altogether," he was saying, "hang a sheet over this
doorway, and let it be always kept wet. I will send in a person I can
rely upon to take the night. You must not let Lady Randolph sit up." He
repeated the same caution to Sir Tom, who came out with a bewildered air
to hear what he had said. Sir Tom was the only one who had taken no
fright. "Highly infectious," the Doctor said. "I advise you to send away
every one who is not wanted. If Lady Randolph could be kept out of the
room so much the better, but I don't suppose that is possible; anyhow,
don't let her sit up. She is just in the condition to take it. It would
be better if you did not go near the child yourself; but, of course, I
understand how difficult that is. Parents are a nuisance in such cases,"
the Doctor said, with a smile which Sir Tom thought heartless, though it
was intended to cheer him. "It is far better to give the little patient
over to scientific unemotional care."

"But you don't mean to say that there is danger, Doctor," cried Sir Tom.
"Why, the little beggar was as jolly as possible only this morning."

"Oh, we'll pull him through, we'll pull him through," the good-natured
Doctor said. He preferred to talk all the time, not to be asked
questions, for what could he say? Nurse looked very awful as she went
upstairs, charged with private information almost too important for any
woman to contain. She stopped at the head of the stairs to whisper to
Fletcher, shaking her head the while, and Fletcher, too, shook her head
and whispered to Mrs. Freshwater that the doctor had a very bad opinion
of the case. Poor little Tom had got to be "the case" all in a moment.
And "no constitution" they said to each other under their breath.

Thus the door closed upon Lucy and all her trouble. She forgot it clean,
as if it never had existed. Everything in the world in one moment became
utterly unimportant to her, except the fever in those heavy eyes. She
reflected dimly, with an awful sense of having forestalled fate, that
she had made a pretence that he was ill to shield her