erful how she devised substitutes for all
sorts of deficiencies. Elsie, amazed at her cleverness, declared herself
sure that if Dr. Hope were to say that a roc's egg was needful for
Imogen's recovery, Clover would reply, as a matter of course,
"Certainly,--I will send it up directly," and thereupon proceed to
concoct one out of materials already in the house, which would answer as
well as the original article and do Imogen just as much good. She cooked
the nicest little sick-room messes, giving them variety by cunningly
devised flavors, and she originated cooling drinks out of sago and
arrowroot and tamarinds and fruit juices and ice, which Imogen would
take when she refused everything else. Her lightness of touch and
bright, equable calmness were unfailing. Dr. Hope said she would make
the fortune of any ordinary hospital, and that she was so evidently cut
out for a nurse that it seemed a clear subversion of the plans of
Providence that she should ever have married,--a speech for which the
doctor got little thanks from anybody, for Clover declared that she
hated hospitals and sick folks, and never wanted to nurse anybody but
the people she loved best, and then only when she couldn't help herself;
while Geoffrey treated the facetious physician to the blackest of
frowns, and privately confided to Elsie that the doctor, good fellow
that he was, deserved a kicking, and he shouldn't mind being the one to
administer it.

By the end of a fortnight the fever was conquered, and then began the
slow process of building up exhausted strength, and fanning the dim
spark of life once again into a generous flame. This is apt to be the
most trying part of an illness to those who nurse; the excitement of
anxiety and danger being past, the space between convalescence and
complete recovery seems very wide, and hard to bridge over. Clover found
it so. Imogen's strength came back slowly; all her old vigor and
decision seemed lost; she was listless and despondent, and needed to be
coaxed and encouraged and cheered as much as does an ailing child.

She did not "stiffen," however, as Clover had feared she might do; on
the contrary, her dependence upon her favorite nurse seemed to increase,
and on the days when she was most languid and hopeless she clung most to
her. There was a wistful look in her eyes as they followed Clover in her
comings and goings, and a new, tender tone in her voice when she spoke
to her; but she said little, and after s