"About as usual."

"You've kept on with the tonic?"

"Yes."

"That's good! Miss Dorcas, look up there. See that moon! See that wisp
of an old blanket dragging over her face! Do you mind coming out and
walking up and down the road while we talk? I may think of one or two
directions to give about your father."

Dorcas stepped forward with the light obedience given to happy tasking.
She paused as! quickly.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "I can't. Father might wake up. I never leave him
alone."

"Never mind, then! let's sit right down here on the steps. After all,
perhaps it's pleasanter. What a garden! It's like my mother's. I could
pick out every leaf in the dark, by the smell. But you're alone, aren't
you? I'm not keeping you from any one?"

"Oh, no! I'm all alone, except father."

"Yes. The fact is, I went into your school to-day, and the teacher said
she was coming here to-night. She offered to bring you a message, but I
said I should come myself. I'm abominably late. I couldn't get here any
earlier."