to the awkward, well-worn staircase, and up this
to poor Feelier's blank-looking room.

"I want teacher!--I want teacher!" came the weary burden as Hazel walked
up to the bedside, shocked at the way in which the poor girl had
changed.

"I want teacher! When will she come?" came again from the cracked lips
as Hazel sank upon her knees by the bedside.

"I am here, my child," she said softly, as the burning head was tossed
wearily from side to side.

The effect was electrical. The thin arms that had been lying upon the
coverlet were raised, and with one ejaculation they were flung round the
visitor's neck, the poor child nestling to her with a cry of joy.

"My poor child!" cried Hazel tenderly. And the weary iteration was
heard no more.

"She never made that ado over me," said the mother discontentedly; but
no one seemed to heed her, and she stole downstairs to her work, but
came up from time to time to find poor Feelier sleeping softly in
Hazel's arms, her head upon her breast. And when Mrs Potts attempted
to unloose the clinging hands that were about "teacher's neck," the girl
uttered a passionate, impatient cry, and clung the tighter to one who
seemed to have come to bring her hope of life.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"It was very imprudent of you to come, Miss Thorne," said the doctor.
"I heard you were here from Mr William Forth Burge. He is waiting
below. Suppose you try to lay her down; she seems to be asleep."

Asleep or awake, poor Feelier would not be separated from her friend,
and the doctor unwillingly owned at last that it would be undoing a
great deal of good to force her away.

"You have given her a calm sense of rest, for which in her delirium she
has been so long striving. I must confess that you have done her more
good than I."

"She will go to sleep soon, perhaps," said Hazel, "and then leave me of
her own accord."

"And then?" said the doctor.

"I can return home, and come again when she asks for me."

"I'm afraid, Miss Thorne, that you have not thought of the probable
consequences of returning home," said the doctor. "You have young
sisters there, and your mother. My dear young lady, it would be
exceedingly imprudent to go."

For the first time the consequences of her step occurred to Hazel, and
she looked aghast at the speaker.

"Then there is the school, Miss Thorne. I think, as a medical man, it
is my duty to forbid your