. "Now you are a getting-well boy,
and all the people will see you, and be so pleased! Just once more,
darling, and then away we go, driving off home to supper in the car.
Now a big smile!"

The curtain rose. Jack smiled his sweet, baby smile, and the audience
burst into cheers of hearty relief. Every one was smiling--not only the
invalid, but also the mother, the father, the neat, complacent nurse.
Esmeralda's voice swelled in glad content. That last scene had been
horrible; never, never again would she attempt to simulate so dreadful a
reality! What a comfort to see the darling once more bonnie and
smiling. Half an hour more and he would be safe in bed.

The curtain fell, was lifted again in response to a storm of applause,
the piano strummed out the first bars of "God Save the King," and the
audience, stumbling to their feet, began to join in the strain.

Suddenly, startlingly, a shriek rent the air, rising shrill above the
heavy chorus of voices--the piercing, treble shrieks of a young child,
followed by loud cries for help and a stampede of feet behind the
curtain.

The music ceased. Geoffrey Hilliard and his wife rushed with one accord
up the steps leading to the platform, the village doctor edged his way
hurriedly through the crowded hall, the real parish nurse, wearing for
the first time her new uniform, followed in his wake. And still the
treble shrieks continued--the terrible, childish shrieks. The women in
the audience shivered and turned pale. _Master Jack_! And only a
moment before he had been playing at sickness. It was ill-work trifling
with serious things. The pretty lamb! What could have happened?

Behind the curtain all was horror and confusion, a ghastly nightmare
exaggeration of the scene just depicted. There on the same bed lay
Jack, writhing in torture, the bandages charred and blackened, a
terrible smell of burning in the air. Bending over him in torment stood
the real father and mother; coming forward with calm, capable help came
the veritable nurse.

How had it happened? How? By what terrible lapse of care had the
precious child been allowed to fall into danger?

The mother's glance was fierce in its wrath and despair, but the
explanation when it came was but too simple. Jack had been bidden to
sit still in bed until his clothes should be brought; from the adjoining
dressing-room. But for a moment Pixie had left his side, but in that
moment a child-like impatience an