open book, asleep—-poor child! quite worn out. Carey moved quietly
across and sat down by her, longing but not daring to touch her. The
lamp was brought up in a minute or two, and that roused Janet, who
sprang up with a sudden start and dazzled eyes, exclaiming "Father!
Oh, it's Mother Carey! Oh, mother, mother, please don't let him go!"

"And you have been all alone in the house, my poor child," said
Carey, as she felt the girl shuddering in her close embrace.

"Mrs. Lucas came to stay with me, but I didn't want her," said Janet,
"so I told her she might go home to dinner. It's father-—"

"Where is father?"

"Those horrid people in Tottenham Court Road sent for him just as he
had come home," said Janet.

"He went out as usual?"

"Yes, though he had such a bad cold. He said he could not be spared;
and he was out all yesterday till bedtime, or I should have told him
grandmamma was not well."

"You thought so!"

"Yes, she panted and breathed so oddly; but she would not let me say
a word to him. She made me promise not, but being anxious about him
helped to do it. Dr. Lucas said so."

There was a strange hardness and yet a trembling in Janet's voice;