or--has he sent for the doctor?"

The negro said that he was to take her back first and then go for the
doctor.

"Go at once."

It was very dark, he urged, and slippery.

"Go on for the doctor! Where have you left the horse?"

The horse was at the stiles. The negro insisted that it would be better
for him to go back with her.

"Don't lose time," she said, "and don't keep me waiting. Go! as quickly
as you can!"

The negro cautioned her to dismount at the frozen creek.

When Gabriella, perhaps an hour later, knocked at the side door of
David's home,--his father's and mother's room,--there was no summons to
enter. She turned the knob and walked in. The room was empty; the fire
had burned low; a cat lay on the hearthstones. It raised its head
halfway and looked at her through the narrow slits of its yellow eyes
and curled the tip of its tail--the cat which is never inconvenienced,
which shares all comforts and no troubles. She sat down in a chair,
overcome with excitement and hesitating what to do. In a moment she
noticed that the door opening on the foot of the staircase stood ajar.
It led to his room. Not a sound reached her from above. She summoned
all her self-control, mounted the stairway, and entered.

The two negro women were standing inside with their backs to the door.
On one side of the bed sat David's mother, on the other his father.
Both were looking at David. He lay in the middle of the bed, his eyes
fixed restlessly on the door. As soon as he saw her, he lifted himself
with an effort and stretched out his arms and shook them at her with
hoarse little cries. "Oh! oh! oh! oh!"

The next moment he locked his arms about her.

"Oh, it has been so long!" he said, drawing her close, "so long!"

"Ah, why did you not send for me? I have waited and waited."

He released her and fell back upon the pillows; then with a slight
gesture he said to his father and mother:--

"Will you leave us alone?"

When they had gone out, he took one of her hands and pressed it against
his cheek and lay looking at her piteously.

Gabriella saw the change in him: his anxious expression, his cheeks
flushed with a red spot, his restlessness, his hand burning. She could
feel the big veins throbbing too fast, too crowded. But a woman smiles
while her heart breaks.

He propped himself a little higher on the pillows and turned on his
side, clutching at his lung.

"Don't be frightened," he said, searching her face, "I've got