Phoebe and he never left the patient till the surgeon came with all the
instruments required; amongst the rest, with a big, tortuous pair of
nippers, with which he could reach the glottis, and snip it. But they
consulted, and thought it wiser to continue the surer method; and so
a little tube was neatly inserted into Dick's windpipe, and his throat
bandaged; and by this aperture he did his breathing for some little
time.

Phoebe nursed him like a mother; and the terror and the joy did her
good, and made her less desolate.

Dick was only just well when both of them were summoned to the farm,
and arrived only just in time to receive their father's blessing and his
last sigh.

Their elder brother, a married man, inherited the farm, and was
executor. Phoebe and Dick were left fifteen hundred pounds apiece, on
condition of their leaving England and going to Natal.

They knew directly what that meant. Phoebe was to be parted from a bad
man, and Dick was to comfort her for the loss.

When this part of the will was read to Phoebe, she turned faint, and
only her health and bodily vigor kept her from swooning right away.

But she yielded. "It is the will of the dead," said she, "and I will
obey it; for, oh, if I had but listened to him more when he was alive to
advise me, I should not sit here now, sick at heart and dry-eyed, when I
ought to be thinking only of the good friend that is gone."