, and was bending over Undine, who lay, white and
unconscious on the floor, with Marjorie's letter clasped convulsively in
her hand.

When Undine opened her eyes she was lying on her bed, and Mrs. Graham
was bathing her forehead, while the faithful Juanita plied a palm-leaf
fan and held a bottle of smelling-salts to her nose. For a moment the
girl gazed about her in a kind of dull bewilderment; then a look of
recollection came into her eyes, and she started up, with a sharp cry.

"I'm not dead, I'm not dead! Oh, tell them it isn't true! I'm not; I'm
not!"

"Lie down, dear," said Mrs. Graham in a tone of gentle authority. "Of
course you are not dead; you fainted, that is all. You are better now,
and if you lie still for a few minutes you will be all right."

"But the letter said I was dead," persisted Undine, wildly, and she
fixed her big, terrified eyes on Mrs. Graham's astonished face. "It
said Barbara Randolph was dead, and her mother put flowers on her
grave."

Mrs. Graham was beginning to be seriously alarmed for the girl's reason,
but she made an effort to appear calm.

"My dear child," she said, soothingly, "you don't know what you are
saying. Barbara Randolph is the daughter of the lady with whom Marjorie
has been staying; she died long ago; she had nothing to do with you."

"But she didn't die, I know she didn't!" cried Undine, sitting up,
despite all Mrs. Graham's efforts to keep her quiet. "I knew it when I
read the letter. For one minute I remembered something horrible. I don't
remember it any more now, but I was so frightened, and--oh, Mrs. Graham,
I was so terribly frightened!" And the poor child burst into a fit of
wild, hysterical sobbing, and clung passionately to her kind friend's
neck.

* * * * *

Miss Jessie pushed her wheeled-chair out onto the porch, and strained
her eyes in the gathering dusk, in the vain hope of seeing some
approaching figure. Fortunately the January evening was warm, but even
if it had been cold she would scarcely have been aware of the fact. She
was very anxious, and this long suspense of waiting was hard to bear.
It was more than two hours since Undine had regained consciousness, and
in all that time the girl had scarcely uttered an intelligible word. She
had passed from one hysterical fit into another, and Mrs. Graham and
Juanita were at their wits' end. For almost the first time in twelve
years Miss Jessie realized the awful lonelines