Connie, with your brother,
and I will send you some physic which will not be at all nasty, and we
shall hear no more of your old lady. My dear Miss Vivian, if you will but
hear reason! I have known such cases a hundred times. The child has seen
a picture, and it has taken possession of her imagination. She is a
little below par, and she has a lively imagination; and she has learned
something from Prentiss, though probably she does not remember that. And
there it is! a few doses of quinine, and she will see visions no more."

"Doctor," cried Mary, "how can you speak so to me? You dare not look me
in the face. You know you dare not: as if you did not know as well as I
do! Oh, why does that child see her, and not me?"

"There it is," he said, with a broken laugh. "Could anything show better
that it is a mere delusion? Why, in the name of all that is reasonable,
should this stranger child see her, if it was anything, and not you?"

Mrs. Turner looked from one to another with wondering eyes. "You know
what it is?" she said. "Oh, you know what it is? Doctor, doctor, is it
because my Connie is so delicate? Is it a warning? Is it--"

"Oh, for heaven's sake! You will drive me mad, you ladies. Is it this,
and is it that? It is nothing, I tell you. The child is out of sorts,
and she has seen some picture that has caught her fancy,--and she thinks
she sees--I'll send her a bottle," he cried, jumping up, "that will put
an end to all that."

"Doctor, don't go away, tell me rather what I must do--if she is looking
for something! Oh, doctor, think if she were unhappy, if she were kept
out of her sweet rest!"

"Miss Mary, for God's sake, be reasonable. You ought never to have heard
a word."

"Doctor, think! if it should be anything we can do. Oh, tell me, tell me!
Don't go away and leave me; perhaps we can find out what it is."

"I will have nothing to do with your findings out. It is mere delusion.
Put them both to bed, Mrs. Turner; put them all to bed!--as if there was
not trouble enough!"

"What is it?" cried Connie's mother; "is it a warning! Oh, for the love
of God, tell me, is that what comes before a death?"

When they were all in this state of agitation, the vicar and his wife
were suddenly shown into the room. Mrs. Bowyer's eyes flew to Mary, but
she was too well bred a woman not to pay her respects first to the lady
of the house, and there were a number of politenesses exchanged, very
breathlessly on Mrs. Turner's p