hing more than the complete
prostration that might follow eight days of sea-sickness, but the
patient's heart was certainly a little weak, and she needed the utmost
quiet. His fee was a guinea for the first visit, and he would drop in
again in the course of the afternoon to relieve our anxiety. We took
turns in watching by her bedside, but the two unemployed ones lingered
forlornly near, and had no heart for sightseeing. Francesca did,
however, purchase opera tickets for the evening, and secretly engaged
the housemaid to act as head nurse in our absence.

As we were dining at seven, we heard a faint voice in the little room
beyond. Salemina left her dinner and went in to find her charge slightly
better. We had been able thus far only to take off her dress, shoes, and
such garments as made her uncomfortable; Salemina now managed to slip on
a nightdress and put her under the bedcovers, returning then to her cold
mutton cutlet.

"She's an extraordinary person," she said, absently playing with her
knife and fork. "She didn't ask me where she was, or show any interest
in her surroundings; perhaps she is still too weak. She said she was
better, and when I had made her ready for bed, she whispered, 'I've got
to say my prayers'.

"'Say them by all means,' I replied.

"'But I must get up and kneel down, she said.

"I told her she must do nothing of the sort; that she was far too ill.

"'But I must,' she urged. 'I never go to bed without saying my prayers
on my knees.'

"I forbade her doing it; she closed her eyes, and I came away. Isn't she
quaint?"

At this juncture we heard the thud of a soft falling body, and rushing
in we found that the Derelict had crept from her bed to her knees, and
had probably not prayed more than two minutes before she fainted for the
fifth or sixth time in twenty-four hours. Salemina was vexed, angel
and philanthropist though she is. Francesca and I were so helpless with
laughter that we could hardly lift the too conscientious maiden into
bed. The situation may have been pathetic; to the truly pious mind it
would indeed have been indescribably touching, but for the moment the
humorous side of it was too much for our self-control. Salemina, in
rushing for stimulants and smelling salts, broke her only comfortable
eyeglasses, and this accident, coupled with her other anxieties
and responsibilities, caused her to shed tears, an occurrence so
unprecedented that Francesca and I kissed and comforte