da did not
notice it, for a very few words seemed to tire her in those days, and
her brain was unable to grasp more than one idea at a time.

The next time she awoke her mother was sitting by the bed. It appeared
that she had been staying in the house for the past four days, peeping
in at the invalid while she slept, but waiting the doctor's permission
to appear before her waking eyes. Rhoda was languidly pleased to see
her, but puzzled to account for the air of depression which lay so
constantly on the once cheery face. If she were getting better, why did
everyone look so doleful--the doctor, her mother, Miss Bruce--everyone
whom she saw? She questioned, but could get no answer, struggled after
a haunting memory, which at one moment seemed at the point of shaping
itself into words, and at the next retreated to a hopeless distance.
And then suddenly, by one of those marvellous actions of the brain which
we can never understand, the whole scene flashed upon her as she lay
upon her pillow, thinking of something entirely different, and not
troubling her head about the mystery.

She saw herself dragging the toboggan up the bank, felt again the horror
of that first mad rush, saw the girls flying to right and left before
Evie's waving arms, and heard Evie's voice shriek aloud in the pain of
the sudden collision. Her own agonised exclamation brought mother and
nurse hurrying across the room to lay soothing hands upon her, and hold
her down in bed as she cried out wildly--

"Oh, I remember! I remember! Evie! The toboggan dashed up the bank,
and she was looking after the girls, and I crashed into her, and she
shrieked. Oh, Evie! Evie! She was hurt, terribly hurt... She fell
down over me. Where is she now? I must go to her--I must go at once!"

The two watchers exchanged a rapid glance, and even in that moment of
agitation Rhoda realised that this was the awakening which they had been
dreading, this the explanation of the universal depression. A new note
of fear sounded in her voice, as she quavered feebly:

"Is Evie--dead?"

"No, no, nor likely to die! She has been ill, but is getting better
now. She is in her own room, with Nurse to look after her. You cannot
possibly see her yet, for it would be bad for both."

"But you are sure she is better? You are sure she will get well? You
are not deceiving me just to keep me quiet?"

"No, indeed. It is the truth, that she is getting stronger every day.
When