"Yes, ma'am, and the doctor ought to have been here long ago. I
wonder why he doesn't come?"

"Hark! wasn't that our bell?" cried Mrs. Ridley, bending forward in
a listening attitude.

The nurse opened the chamber door and stood hearkening for a moment
or two. Not hearing the servant stir, she ran quickly down stairs to
the street door and drew it open, but found no one.

There was a look of suspense and fear in Mrs. Ridley's face when the
nurse came back:

"Who was it?"

"No one," replied the nurse. "The wind deceived you."

A groan came from Mrs. Ridley's lips as she sank down upon the bed,
where, with her face hidden, she lay as still as if sleeping. She
did not move nor speak for the space of more than half an hour, and
all the while her nurse waited and listened through the weird,
incessant noises of the storm for the coming of Dr. Hillhouse, but
waited and listened in vain.

All at once, as if transferred to within a few hundred rods of these
anxious watchers, the great clock of the city, which in the still
hours of a calm night could be heard ringing out clear but afar off,
threw a resonant clang upon the air, pealing the first stroke of the
hour of twelve. Mrs. Ridley started up in bed with a scared look on