nobody but me to help the man
upstairs with 'em, an' said I must get away to the doctor's jes' as fast
as I could drive. She said somethin' about her sleepin' in the garret and
ketchin' cold, but she wouldn't let me stop to ax no questions. She said
the doctor was wanted straight off."

"I am very sorry," said Mrs. Tolbridge, "that he is not here, but he
said he was going to stop and see Miss Panney. I can't tell you any
other place to which he was going. If you drive back by the Witton road,
you may find him, or, if he has not yet arrived, it might be well to
wait for him."

Arrived at the Witton house, Mike saw Miss Panney, wrapped in a heavy
shawl and wearing a hood, taking her morning exercise on the piazza.

"They want the doctor already!" she exclaimed in answer to Mike's
inquiries. "Who could have thought that? And he left here nearly half
an hour ago. His wife will send him when he gets home, but there is no
knowing when that will be. However, she must have somebody to attend
to her. Mike, I will go myself. I will go with you in your wagon. Wait
one minute."

Into the house popped Miss Panney, and in a very short time returned,
carrying with her an umbrella and a large reticule made of brown plush,
and adorned with her monogram in yellow. One of the Witton girls came
with her, and assisted her to the seat, by the side of Mike.

"Now then," said she, "get along as fast as you can. I shall not mind
the jolts."

"Phoebe," said Miss Panney, as she entered the Cobhurst door, "it's a
long time since I have seen you, and I have not been in this house for
eight years. I hope you will be able to tell me something about this
sudden sickness, for Mike is as stupid as a stone post, and knows
nothing at all."

"Now, Miss Panney," said Phoebe, speaking very earnestly, but in a low
voice, "I can't say that I can really give you the true head and tail of
it, for it's mighty hard to find out what did happen to that young gal.
All I know is that she didn't come down to breakfast, and that Mr.
Haverley went up to her room hisself, and he knocked and he knocked, and
then he pushed the door open and went in, and, bless my soul, Miss
Panney, she wasn't there. Then he hollered, and me and him, we sarched
and sarched the house. He went up into the garret by hisself, for you may
be sure I wouldn't go there, but he was just wild, and didn't care where
he went, and there he found her dead asleep on the floor, and a livin'
skelet