while the doctor's footsteps came rapidly down the hall and stopped at
the threshold of the parlour.

"You may go in, Mr. Gracey--your wife is asking for you; but be very
careful not to say anything that might disturb her. Just keep her as
quiet as you can for a few hours."

Then the door in the distance opened again, and Mrs. Carr, in the hollow
tones of destiny, called: "Gabriella, Jane is waiting to speak to her
husband."

"Come, Charley," ordered Gabriella, grimly, and a moment later she
pushed him across her mother's threshold and turned back into the hall.
"I hope she'll make him squirm," she said to herself, with relish.
Nothing, she felt, except the certainty of Charley's squirming, could
make up to her for the half-hour she had just spent with him.

She was still standing there when Jane's medicine came from the druggist
at the corner, and for a while she waited outside the door, fearing to
lighten Charley's punishment by her entrance. The medicine had to be
measured in drops, and she went into the dining-room, where the children
were huddled together in an improvised bed, and diluted the mixture with
water before she could persuade herself to go into her mother's room.
Even then she hesitated until she remembered that the doctor had said
Jane must take the first dose immediately. Not by her, if she could help
it, should the divine wrath of the furies be appeased.

But with the first touch of her hand on the knob, Charley's flippant
voice greeted her with, "Won't you come in, Gabriella?" and swallowing
her angry retort, she entered stiffly, with the glass held out straight