and to set to work yourself to redeem the past. Now, I can allow no more
talking. Remember, I am deputy nurse, and it is my business to see that
you shut your eyes and go to sleep."

Aldred seemed so much calmer and easier next morning that the doctor was
surprised at the change.

"If she only continues to improve at this rate, we shall soon have her
well," he reported. "Keep her as cheerful as you can, and--yes--if she
is asking so particularly for her friend, it will be advisable not to
thwart her."

Aldred's one feverish anxiety was to see Mabel, though she did not know
whether she more longed for or dreaded the visit. The nurse, to whom
Miss Drummond briefly confided an outline of the circumstances, decided,
though she feared the effect of so much excitement, that it was better
to get the meeting over than to allow her patient to remain in a state
of such great suspense.

"I want Mabel with me alone," said Aldred, and she pleaded so hard that
even Aunt Bertha was judicious enough to consent.

Propped up on pillows, Aldred gazed with nervous eyes as her friend
entered the room. Mabel had evidently been crying bitterly, and had not
entirely regained her self-control as she came and stood beside the bed.

"Miss Drummond has told you?" queried Aldred eagerly.

"Yes, she has told me everything. I can't deny that it has been a most
terrible shock. I had believed in you and trusted you so utterly. I
thought you hadn't a single fault. But oh, Aldred! Miss Drummond has
been talking to me; she says we were both wrong, and that I was partly
to blame for expecting too much. She told me I had set up an idol, and
it was right that it should be broken down; that no human being is
faultless, and that we must look for our example to the one perfect
Pattern, Who can never disappoint us. Shall we start quite afresh now,
with Him for our ideal, and try to help each other?"

Aldred's face was buried in the pillow; she was sobbing too much to
reply.

"I haven't thanked you yet for saving me," continued Mabel. "It was a
braver thing by far even than what I supposed you had done, because you
risked so much more."

"I'd have given my life for you gladly!" gulped Aldred.

"I know, and I feel almost unworthy of such love."

"Will you kiss me, to show you can forget what's past?"

Mabel bent her head. It was a kiss of complete reconciliation and
forgiveness, and Aldred, with a glad leap of her heart, felt that the
friendship th