I'm sorry I was so cruel! Oh, I take it all back. Oh, mother, speak to
me!"

"'Tain't no use," said the woman, "she don't hear ye. An' if she did she
couldn't speak. I've seen folks struck down with apoplexy afore."

"Oh, will she die? will she die?" groaned the wretched daughter, dropping
on her knees beside the couch.

"Can't tell, mum; sometimes they die in a little bit, and sometimes they
get purty well over it and live on for years. Here, let me put another
pillar under her head, and some o' ye there run and fetch the coldest
water that ever ye can git."

Some one had summoned a physician, and he presently came hurrying in. His
first act was to send every one from the room except the patient and her
two attendants.

With tears and sobs Virginia besought him to save her mother's life.

"I shall certainly do my best, madam," he said, "but very little can be
done at present. What was the immediate cause of the attack?"

Virginia answered vaguely that her mother was fatigued with a long journey
and had been worried and fretted.

"This is not her home?" glancing around the meanly furnished dirty room.

"No; neither she nor I have been accustomed to such surroundings,"
answered Virginia haughtily. "Can you not see that we are ladies? We are