er patient, whom she found languid and disposed to
sleep after the recent excitement, and she left her again, taking little
Bella with her. Mrs. Maynard slept long, but woke none the better for
her nap. Towards evening she grew feverish, and her fever mounted as the
night fell. She was restless and wakeful, and between her dreamy dozes
she was incessant in her hints for a consultation to Grace, who passed
the night in her room, and watched every change for the worse with a
self-accusing heart. The impending trouble was in that indeterminate
phase which must give the physician his most anxious moments; and this
inexperienced girl; whose knowledge was all to be applied, and who had
hardly arrived yet at that dismaying stage when a young physician finds
all the results at war with all the precepts, began to realize the
awfulness of her responsibility. She had always thought of saving life,
and not of losing it.

V.

By morning Grace was as nervous and anxious as her patient, who had
momentarily the advantage of her in having fallen asleep. She went
stealthily out, and walked the length of the piazza, bathing her eyes
with the sight of the sea, cool and dim under a clouded sky. At the
corner next the kitchen she encountered Barlow, who, having kindled
the fire for the cook, had spent s moment of leisure in killing some
chickens at the barn; he appeared with a cluster of his victims in his
hand, but at sight of Grace he considerately put them behind him.

She had not noticed them. "Mr. Barlow," she said, "how far is it to
Corbitant?"

Barlow slouched into a conversational posture, easily resting on his
raised hip the back of the hand in which he held the chickens. "Well, it
's accordin' to who you ask. Some says six mile, and real clever folks
makes it about four and a quarter."

"I ask you," persisted Grace.

"Well, the last time I was there, I thought it was about sixty. 'Most
froze my fingers goin' round the point. 'N' all I was afraid of was
gettin' there too soon. Tell you, a lee shore ain't a pleasant neighbor
in a regular old northeaster. 'F you go by land, I guess it's about ten
mile round through the woods. Want to send for Dr. Mulbridge? I thought
mebbe"--

"No, no!" said Grace. She turned back into the house, and then she came
running out again; but by this time Barlow had gone into the kitchen,
where she heard him telling the cook that these were the last of the
dommyneckers. At breakfast several o