very comic grimace passed over her face. She was thinking to herself,
"Honest, that! I expect he is very sorry,"--"I am very sorry to have to
speak to you about Mrs. Little," he continued; "but I think it is my
duty to tell you that she is sinking very fast."

"What! Sally! what is the matter with her?" exclaimed Hetty. "Come right
in here, doctor;" and she threw open the sitting-room door, and, leading
him in, sank into the nearest chair, and said, like a little child:

"Oh, dear! what shall I do?"

Dr. Eben looked at her for a second, scrutinizingly.

This was not the sort of person he had expected to see in Miss Hetty
Gunn. This was an impulsive, outspoken, loving woman, without a trace of
any thing masculine about her, unless it were a certain something in the
quality of her frankness, which was masculine rather than feminine; it
was more purely objective than women's frankness is wont to be: this Dr.
Eben thought out later; at present, he only thought: "Poor girl! I've
got to hurt her sadly."

"You don't mean that Sally's going to die, do you?" said Hetty, in a
clear, unflinching tone.

"I am afraid she will, Miss Gunn," replied Dr. Eben, "not immediately;
perhaps not for some months: but there seems to be a general failure of
all the vital forces. I cannot rouse her, body or soul."

"Nonsense!" said Hetty. "If rousing is all she wants, surely we can
rouse her somehow. Isn't there any thing wrong with her anywhere?"