miling.

'I must go home,' she said. 'At the latest I must go home by ten
o'clock. It will be all right till then. I can trust Celestina to see to
her father's breakfast and everything, and there's not much doing in the
shop before then. Celestina will have let Miss Neale know not to come.'

'How well you have brought your little girl up--how thoughtful and
womanly she is; and to think that she is only a year or two older than
Bridget!' said Mrs. Vane sadly.

'It has not been exactly my doing,' Celestina's mother replied. 'I often
think the very things I would have wished different for her have been
the best training. She has _had_ to be helpful and thoughtful; she has
had her own duties and share of responsibility almost all her life.'

'Biddy never feels responsible for anything--not even for learning her
lessons or being ready for meals,' said her mother.

'Well, that is just what wants awaking in her. This lesson may show her
that even a child is responsible, that a child may cause sad trouble.
One would rather she had learnt it the other way, but it may be what she
needed.'

Mrs. Vane sighed. She wanted to be patient, but she could hardly bring
herself to feel that a lesson which was to cost Biddy's father such
suffering, nay, even to risk his life perhaps, would not be too dearly
bought.

The doctor came, but he was not much more outspoken than the night
before. Biddy was to be kept very quiet, the more she could sleep the
better; as for Mr. Vane, he _hoped_ it would not be rheumatic fever, but
it was plain he feared it. And he advised Mrs. Vane to get a trained
nurse.

A trying time followed. For some days it seemed almost certain that Mr.
Vane was in for rheumatic fever; in the end he just managed to escape
it, but he was sadly weakened, and the cough, which had disappeared
since his coming to Seacove, began again. It would be weeks before he
could leave his room.

And Biddy, too, did not get well as had been expected. She lay there
white and silent as if she did not want to get better, only seeming
thoroughly to wake up when she asked, as she did at least every two
hours, how papa was, and sinking back again when the usual answer came
of 'No better,' or 'Very little better.' Her mother was very kind to
her, but she could not be much with Biddy, and perhaps it was as well,
for it would have been almost impossible for her to hide for long her
great unhappiness about Mr. Vane.

Mrs. Fairchild came to