Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Previous Page
–
Next Page
OCR
. ing? ‘I began to hope so.
I ...k-, -
‘THREE WOMEN AND A’ MYSTERY. - ’ ' I 9
tities of them-quantities. Ah, Miss
Ffolliet,” he exclaimed in great relief, as
her head showed at the door, “we have
,work for you-exciting, interesting work!
-Come here and I will tell you all about
' it.
You, Miss Ladd, may now return to
your patient.”
CHAPTER III.
EXPERIMENT IN EXTREMIS.
I REENTERED Coralie’s presence in a
state of mind which was something of a
mystery to myself. I felt like crying-I
felt like running away-I felt like-well,
'on the-whole, I think I felt most like
staying right where I was and watching
‘over my poor darling.
Her aspect, as I took Molly's place at
the bedside, was very touching, but far
from reassuring. One of the roses which
her lover had brought her the day before
was in her hand, and it was held so feebly
that it nodded against her lips, where it
hardly moved with her breath. ‘ She looked
like a person trying to die.
She scarcely noted me as I approached
the bed, and when I ventured to ask her
if she felt equal to seeing company this
morning, she answered only by languidly
unclosing her lids and letting them weari-
ly fall again. Anxious and greatly trou-
bled by a situation I did not understand,
I looked up at the clock. The doctor did
not usually come till ten, and it was not
yet half past eight. VVould her critical
condition tend to hasten him this morn-
Certainly his
presence was-needed here, for advice if
not for action. I, young and ‘inexperi-
enced and shaken, with feelings I dare not
acknowledge to myself, was totally unfit
to cope with the present situation, un-
aided. ' f
An hour or so passed, and while I was
hesitating whether or not to send a secret
messenger to meet him, I heard a little
gasp from the bed. Turning that way in '
some apprehension, I was delighted to see
that my patient had roused herself and
was looking in the direction of the door-
way with something like a gleam of inter-
est in her eye. I did. not know whether
to be encouraged or alarmed, when I saw
who and what had attracted her atten-
tion.
whether real or assumed, was certainly
full of sparkle, was entering with her
arms laden with flully laces and other
choice treasures from Miss Cassctty’s
wardrobe. Behind her followed one of
the men, with an arm full of fresh flow-
ers, which he motioned me to take from
him. Everything they carried was pure
white.
Coralie, with a suspicion of color in her
cheeks, stared at the unwonted gear that
was being brought to her bedside, and
then at the unusual array of flowers. ’
“What are you going to do?” she fcebly
demanded. -
Miss Ffolliet laughed--cheerfully. and
with a. toss of her head, which made her
look some half dozen or so years younger.
“Make you beautiful,” she replied. “You
are better this morning, and the doctor
says that you may see a few friends.”
The doctor! So much was a lie, I knew.
The poor young thing, startled and per-
ha s a little frightened, shrank into her
pillows and feebly shook her head. But
she did not close her eyes, and followed,
with growing curiosity, the unfolding of
these delicate laces and their deft be-
stowal about her wasted neck and arms.
“George is coming,” explained Miss
Ffolliet in a whisper. ,
“But he comes every day,” faintly re-
monstrated Coralie, glancing from the
other’s quickly moving hands to the flow-
ers which I'was endeavoring to dispose
with some sort of taste about the room.
“Why all this preparation to-day? Are
we,” she asked, with a faint, very‘faint
semblance of humor, “are we going to
have a party?” '
“Perhaps,” Miss Ffollietpslyly admitted,
with a demure puckcr of her lips, which
I did not know whether to admire or bit-
Miss Ffolliet, with a smile which, .
-a‘-'-a-.=--‘-.-.-3-"'