Convalescence

Had it not been for the presence of Dr. Holbrook, who, accepting Guy's
invitation to tea, rode back with him to Aikenside, Mrs. Agnes would
have gone off into a passion when told that Jessie had been "exposed
to fever and mercy knows what."

"There's no telling what one will catch among the very poor," she said
to Dr. Holbrook, as she clasped and unclasped the heavy gold bracelets
flashing on her white, round arm.

"I'll be answerable for any disease Jessie caught at Mr. Markham's,"
the doctor replied.

"At Mr. Who's? What did you call him?" Agnes asked, the bright color
on her cheek fading as the doctor replied: "Markham--an old man who lives in Honedale. You never knew him, of
course."

Involuntarily Agnes glanced at Guy, in whose eye there was, as she
fancied, a peculiar expression. Could it be he knew the secret she
guarded so carefully? Impossible, she said to herself; but still the
white fingers trembled as she handled the china and silver, and for
once she was glad when the doctor took his leave, and she was alone
with Jessie.

"What was that girl's name?" she asked, "the one you went to see?"

"Maddy, mother--Madeline Clyde. She's so pretty. I'm going to see her
again. May I?"

Agnes did not reply directly, but continued to question the child with
regard to the cottage which Jessie thought so funny, slanting away
back, she said, so that the roof on one side almost touched the
ground. The window panes, too, were so very tiny, and the room where
Maddy lay sick was small and low.