one know what you came for. You
can tell Mr. Madison what the trouble is--and tell him that I sent you,
and that I am here. Do you understand?"

"Yas'um, mum," said Sam impressively. "Just you done leab all that to
me, missy."

Across the track on the siding, the private car was dimly lighted, the
window curtains down. Helena crossed the track and mounted the steps. As
she reached the platform, Miss Harvey, who had evidently heard her
coming, opened the door and drew her quietly inside.

A glance at the nurse's face brought a sudden chill to Helena's heart.
Miss Harvey, capable, controlled, grave, smiled at her a little sadly.

"I sent for you, Miss Vail," she said in a low tone, "because Mrs.
Thornton has been asking for you incessantly ever since the attack came
on three-quarters of an hour ago."

"You mean," said Helena, "that--that there is--"

"No hope," the nurse completed. "I am afraid there is none--it is her
heart. The condition has been aggravated by her activity during the last
few days since she has been able to walk--though I have done everything
within my power to keep her quiet." Miss Harvey laid her hand on
Helena's arm. "There is one thing, Miss Vail, I feel that I must say to
you, in justice both to you and to myself, before you see her. Whatever
my personal ideas may be of what has taken place here, my professional
duty as a nurse demanded that I send for a doctor at once, and I want
you to know that is what I did, though I have not been successful in
getting one. There is no doctor here, so I telegraphed; but the doctor
at Barton's Mills is away."

"Yes," said Helena mechanically.

"I just wanted you to understand," said Miss Harvey. "Will you come and
see Mrs. Thornton now?"

"Does she know," whispered Helena, as she followed the nurse down the
corridor of the car, "does she know that--how ill she is?"

"Yes," Miss Harvey answered simply. She stopped before a compartment
door, opened it softly, and, stepping aside, motioned Helena to enter.

A little cry rose to Helena's lips that she choked back somehow, and a
mist for a moment blinded her eyes--then she was kneeling beside the
brass bed, and was holding in both her own the hand that was stretched
out to her.

"Helena--dear--I am so glad you came," said Mrs. Thornton faintly. "I--I
am not going to get better, and there are some things I want to say to
you."

"Oh, but you are," returned Helena quickly, smiling bravely now. "You
mus