"We waited too long. O, it was cruel."

"Now Heaven forgive you," began poor Miss
Serocold.

The apartment was rapidly filling with alarmed
servants. Stephen Gould, the deaf— who had
of late discarded his fixed idea of conflagration,
and now, on the appearance of any agitation
in the household, invariably made a dive across
the street, and brought up a doctor— quickly
followed, accompanied by Mr. Hartshorne, the
busy little practitioner at the corner, who, though
present at about the same period at twenty
different places in the vicinity, possessed the
curious property of always being found at home.

The calm professional presence had its accustomed
effect of reducing everybody to silence and
self-possession. Hartshorne lifted the white
face— white, and seemingly impassive, as the
stone on which it lay— and the poor boy being
gently placed upon a mattress which had been
brought in and stretched upon the floor, the
little doctor began a closer examination.

"He's d— d— dead!" sobbed Miss Serocold.

"Not a bit more than you are, madam," said
the little doctor, rather sharply. " And, what is
almost as satisfactory, the bleeding has stopped
for the present. When I have examined the
character of the blood, I shall be able to prove
——Bless me! that's unlucky, first time in my
life, I've left my spectacles behind! I'll not be
gone one minute. Get you all out of the room but
two; and let those two, for their lives (or rather,
for the patient's), not suffer him to be moved, or
touched, or even spoken to, till I return."

"I will remain," said Polly, quietly.

"And I," said my aunt.

Presently there was a trembling of the eyelid,
the long lashes went heavily, wearily apart, as
though waking were unwelcome. But the first
object that met his view was the face of his little
lady, a tear upon her cheek, and a whole world
of pity in her eyes. He saw it, for a hectic
colour rose in his cheek, and he made a feeble
effort to move.

Polly remembered the doctor's charge. She
made a gesture, almost fiercely, with her hand.

"If you move, you die," she murmured.

The boy repeated his effort, without taking
his eyes from her face, and succeeded in placing
his head about an inch nearer to Polly's foot;
then, as though satisfied, suffered his heavy lids
to close again.

"If you move hand, or foot, or tongue again,
we quit the room," said Miss Serocold.

The patient lay like a stone.

Back rushed the little doctor, fitting his glasses
on his nose as he entered. After a careful examination
of the invalid's condition, he was
enabled to assure the anxious witnesses that all
danger had for the present passed away. (Good
Mr. Hartshorne was not aware of the new symptom
that had declared itself during his brief ab-
sence, and, oddly enough, nobody mentioned it!)
Extreme quiet, and perfect repose of mind, were
now the chief essentials. If the bleeding should
not return within the next half hour, the doctor
held that there would be little risk in removing
the patient to his own lodging; and as Mr.
Hartshorne knew Mrs. Ascroft very well, he
would call, as he returned home, and arrange
with the good womanas to the mode of
conveying him thither.

Had any indifferent person taken note of Polly-
my-Lamb's demeanour, since the moment she had
been detected by her resuscitated guest in the act
of weeping over him— but more especially since
that guest had been pronounced out of danger—
she must have appeared in the light of a very
unfeeling young person. When the doctor
reappeared, she withdrew to the other end of the
apartment; and no sooner had he uttered the
hopeful words, than she quitted it altogether.

"A very self-possessed young lady," thought
little Mr. Hartshorne, as he buzzed quietly about
his patient, feeling half disposed to remain, and
see that the latter received humane treatment.

"She offered to watch him, with all the coolness
of a hospital nurse, and now that she knows he's
not going absolutely to expire on her hearth-rug,
walks off, I dare say, to her supper! But she's
an heiress, forsooth. Miss is more accustomed
to receive attentions than to expend them on the
suffering. I hate (if you please, my dear Miss
Serocold, hold his head a little higher) coldness
in very young people. ' So young, and so untender!'
as the cow said, when she mumbled the
pine-shoots. Well, well. Thank you, my dear
madam— the spoon— so— just a few of these
drops before he is moved, and as many after."

Only once more did Master Haggerdorn open
his languid eyes; and, seeing no one but my
good aunt, speedily closed them again, unnoticed,
remaining in that state until he was conveyed in
a sort of funeral procession, with Stephen Gould
as chief mourner, to his own lodging, and placed
in the custody of his landlady.

CHAPTER VI.

IT was some days before the sick-chamber
exhibited any tokens of living occupancy. The
blinds remained half drawn, and not even the
figure of a gliding nurse was visible. A message
forwarded to Mr. Hartshorne on the day after
the catastrophe, importing Miss Humpage's
desire (after " compliments") to be informed of
the young man's condition, received a decidedly
tart reply: "Can't tell her, or anybody, yet.
I'm not a witch."

"Hang her ' compliments!' " muttered the
little doctor (who was, nevertheless, amenity
itself to the sex in general, but had conceived
an absolute dislike to poor Polly). " Why the
dogs" (the doctor's nearest approach to an
execration)" doesn't she send over to the lad's own
place? It's nearer. But, no, my lady's fine—
'Let some one inquire of the medical person.'
Hang the chit's affectation! Yet, if her lapdog
had been choking with a chicken-bone, she'd
hare been down on her knees, shrieking, tearing