"Oh, yes!" said Rachel. "I enjoy every minute, except when the pain is
too hard: you don't know what a beautiful thing life seems to me. I
always have the sky you know" (glancing at the window), "and that is
enough for a lifetime. Every day birds fly by too; and every day my
father reads to me at least two hours. So I have great deal to think
about."

"Miss Barlow, I envy you," said Hetty in a tone which startled even
herself. Again Rachel bent on her the same clairvoyant gaze which had so
embarrassed her before. Hetty shrank from it still more than at first,
and left the room, saying to her husband: "I will wait for you outside."

As they drove away, Hetty said:

"Eben, what is it in her look which makes me so uneasy? I don't like to
have her look at me."

"Now that is strange," replied the doctor. "After you had left the room,
the child said to me: 'What is the matter with your wife? She is not
well,' and I laughed at the idea, and told her I never knew any woman
half so well or strong. Rachel is a sort of clairvoyant, as persons in
her condition are so apt to be; but she made a wrong guess this time,
didn't she?"

Hetty did not answer; and the doctor turning towards her saw that her
eyes were fixed on the sky with a dreamy expression.

"Why, Hetty!" he exclaimed. "Why do you look so? You are perfectly well,
are you not, dear?"