Mrs. Sutton wiped her spectacles and gave the note to her niece.

"There is but one thing for me to do, you see, my dear. Jack! I

shall be ready in twenty minutes."

If the line of duty wavered before her sight during the three-mile

drive, it lay straight and distinct ahead of her when she stood in

Rosa's chamber.

"My child!" she ejaculated, upon the threshold "you did not tell me

that you were confined to your bed!"

"I ought not to be!"

The rebellious pout and tone were Rosa's, as were also the black

eyes--unnaturally large and bright though they were--but the pretty

lips were wan, and strained by lines of pain; the pomegranate flush

was no longer variable, and was nestled in hollows, and the hands

were wasted to translucency.

"I am quite strong enough to be up, and would be, if my tyrannical

doctors and their tractable tool, my lord and master, had not

decreed that I shall lie here until midday, if I am very obedient;

eat my meals; take their poisonous medicines, and abstain from

coughing. If I offend in any of these particulars I am not to rise

until three o'clock--when they are in an especially glum humor--not

at all that day. But now you are here, we shall combat them

valorously. Dear Auntie!" putting the thin arms about the old lady's

plump neck, and laughing through a spring rain of tears, "how good

and safe it is to be with you again! And you are the same kind,

lovely darling! no older by a day--no uglier by a solitary wrinkle!

I couldn't sleep last night, for fearing you would not come to me!"

"You should not have doubted it, dear!" said the motherly voice,

blithe as affectionate, while soft, agile fingers undid the tight

embrace, and commenced, from the force of habit, to arrange the

tumbled bed-clothes. "Wherever I can be of most use is the place in

which I wish to be."

"I know you have always lived for others," answered Rosa, with an

involuntary sigh, a shadow glooming her eyes.

"For whom else should I live and work?" laughed Mrs. Sutton, in her

cheerful, guileless fashion. "My personal wants are few and easily

supplied, and I like to be busy. I account it a privilege to be able

to fuss about my friends when they are ailing."

By way of doing as she liked, she attacked the disorderly room.

Rosa's three trunks stood in a row against the wall--all of them

open--the tray of the largest lying beside it upon the carpet, the

lid of this thrown back and the contents in utter confusion; laces

hanging over the sides and trailing upon the floor. A casket of

medicines was uppermost in the next trunk, crushing a confused

medley of collars, ribbons, gloves, and handkerchiefs. A

dressing-gown lay upon the seat of one chair, a skirt over the back

of another; boots and slippers peeped from the valance of the

antique bedstead; there was a formidable array of bottles upon

mantel and bureau--conspicuous among them cod-liver oil, cologne,

and laudanum--incongruous appendages to the various appliances of

the toilette scattered between them.




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