hat Margaretta
will let you play with Dinah when you are well?"

"I don't want to get well," said Sophia Jane at once.

"Don't--want--to get--well!" repeated Susan in surprise.

"I shouldn't mind always being ill," said Sophia Jane. "Everyone's
kind, no one scolds you; you have nice things to eat, and lemonade. I
don't want to get well."

"I want you to get well to play with me again," said Susan. "And I know
everybody wants you to get well."

"Why do they?" asked the invalid.

"Oh, because--of course they do," was the only reason Susan could give.

"Well," said Sophia Jane thoughtfully, "of course there's the trouble of
it, and the doctor to pay."

She wrinkled her brow as she said this, and looked sideways at Susan
with her old cunning expression.

"Oh, it isn't that," said Susan very earnestly; "why, they're all
dreadfully sorry. That night you were worst, you know, Aunt Hannah
cried, and every one, and so did Buskin."

"I don't think I should cry if they were ill," said Sophia Jane after
some reflection.

"Well, it shows how fond they are of you, doesn't it?" remarked Susan.

"Perhaps," replied Sophia Jane, and after that she was silent for a long
time, and Susan stationed herself at the window to watch for
Mademoiselle and her friend.

Whenever she saw two people in the distance she cried out, "Here they
are!" And this happened so often, and turned out to be not the least
like them, that at last it made the invalid quite peevish. So many
false alarms, when she could not look out of the window herself, were
most distracting.

"You're not to say it again," she exclaimed in a weak voice of command,
"unless you see them _acshally_ coming in at the gate."

Susan controlled herself with difficulty, for she was getting very much
excited as the time drew near. And now, stepping quickly and neatly
along with a large basket on her arm, Mademoiselle's figure did really
appear--alone. Where was the friend? Susan's heart sank, and her hands
grew quite cold. In another minute she must meet Mademoiselle, and
then-- "She's coming in at the gate," she announced to the invalid in a
trembling voice; "and she hasn't brought Mrs Jones or anyone, but only
a large basket."

"You're sure?" said Sophia Jane in a husky agitated tone; "then look
here, quick, before she comes in."

Susan turned sharply round from the window. Sophia Jane was leaning
forward over the grate, with a flush on her white cheeks and h