Here the doctor stopped, wholly out of breath, while Guy for a moment

sat without speaking a single word. Jessie, in his hearing, had told

her mother what the sick girl in the doctor's office had said about

being poor and wanting the money for grandpa, while Mrs. Noah had

given him a rather exaggerated account of Mr. Markham's visit; but he

had not associated the two together until now, when he saw the whole,

and almost as much as the doctor himself regretted the part he had had

in Maddy's illness and her grandfather's distress.

"Doc," he said, laying his hand on the doctor's arm, "I am that old

hunks, the miserly rascal who refused the money. I met the old man

going home that day, and he asked me for help. You say the place must

be sold. It never shall, never. I'll see to that, and you must save

the girl."

"I can't, Guy. I've done all I can, and now, if she lives, it will be

wholly owing to the prayers that old saint of a grandfather says for

her. I never thought much of these things until I heard him pray; not

that she should live anyway, but that if it were right Maddy might not

die. Guy, there's something in such a prayer as that. It's more

powerful than all my medicine swallowed at one grand gulp."

Guy didn't know very much about praying then, and so he did not

respond, but he thought of Lucy Atherstone, whose life was one hymn of

prayer and praise, and he wished she could know of Maddy, and join her

petitions with those of the grandfather. Starting suddenly from his

chair, he exclaimed, "I'm going down there. It will look queerly, too,

to go alone. Ah, I have it! I'll drive back to Aikenside for Jessie,

who has talked so much of the girl that her lady mother, forgetting

that she was once a teacher, is disgusted. Yes, I'll take Jessie with

me, but you must order it; you must say it is good for her to ride,

and, Hal, give me some medicine for her, just to quiet Agnes, no

matter what, provided it's not strychnine."

Contrary to Guy's expectations, Agnes did not refuse to let Jessie go

for a ride, particularly as she had no suspicion where he intended

taking her, and the little girl was soon seated by her brother's side,

chatting merrily of the different things they passed upon the road.

But when Guy told her where they were going, and why they were going

there, the tears came at once into her eyes, and hiding her face in

Guy's lap she sobbed bitterly.




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