. It
was curious to see the effect this declaration had on the different
members of the household. Sir Robert, after turning pale and saying "God
bless my soul! you don't mean it," to the doctor, rallied from the shock
as soon as he had left the house, and refused to believe anything of the
kind, talked about "the art conjectural," and did all he could to
impress this view on Miss Noel, who promptly gave herself up as lost,
told him that she had made her will "before leaving town for the North"
the year before, asked that her body might be "taken back to dear old
England," if this could be done without risk to others, and begged that
she might be "sent straight away to the hospital" and no one allowed to
come in contact with her meanwhile. Bijou, Ethel, and Parsons stoutly
refused to be hustled out of her room, declaring that they had already
been exposed to the danger, if danger there was, and protested that they
were ready to nurse her through anything. Mr. Brown, coming home to
dinner, was horrified as by some impiety to hear it proposed that Miss
Noel should go to a hospital. "Admitting, for the sake of argument,"
said this ever-judicial host, "that the doctor is right, what follows?
Why, that Miss Noel will require great care, and, humanly speaking, will
incur additional risk in leaving my house. I cannot dream of allowing
it. My married daughter has taken her children to see their grandmother;
there are only Bijou and myself to be considered, and neither of us has
any fear of the disease, or, indeed, any great belief in the reality of
the danger. I cannot think of letting a guest, and that guest a stranger
here, go to a public place of the kind and commit herself to hired
nurses. Oh, no! That is out of the question."

"I never heard of such a thing,--never. It would be perfectly shameful!"
protested Bijou afresh. And so Sir Robert was overruled, and, much
touched by this view of the matter, tried to express thanks on behalf of
Miss Noel, bungled out a few short phrases, very different from his
usually fluent utterances, shook Mr. Brown's hand heartily, sat down
with a very red face, and then started up and dismissed the carriage,
which, pending this decision, had been waiting at the door.

It chanced that Mrs. Sykes had been out for some hours that day, and had
then come back and gone into the library, where she spent some time in
writing to the friends who had entertained her in Central New York. She
had just fi