CHAPTER XVI.

MORE KINDNESS THAN PUNCTILIO.

"WHAT can dame Stokes want, this morning?" said Hannah, looking up from her work, as she heard the approaching click of pattens.

"Something for master's terr'ble bad rheumatiz, I dare say," said Rosina.

"What brings you out in such bad weather, Mrs. Stokes?" said Mrs. Wellford, as the dame stood curtseying at the parlour door.

"I'm afraid, ma'am, I shall spoil the carpet if I come in, my cloak drips so, but I says to master I'll just step up, for I know how clever you always was at doctoring--"

"What, is your husband worse, this morning?" "No, ma'am, thank goodness, it's young master this time."

"Mr. Huntley! Is his cold very bad then?"

Surely, I would not have come to trouble you

about a cold," said Mrs. Stokes disdainfully, "which I could cure myself as well as anybody with gin and honey; but I don't like meddling with dangerous things, and I'm afraid the young gentleman's rather beyond me now, seeing his fever's so high, and his tongue never lays—”

"Dear me!” cried Rosina, dropping her work, and looking at Hannah.

"Fever!" repeated Mrs. Wellford-" Has he sent for Mr. Good?"

"No, ma'am, and that's what I came to ask you about, not liking to take the hazard on myself, for it was all very well yesterday, when he was able to give his own directions; and I asked him if he would have the doctor, and he kept still saying no, and would n't do any thing but lie in bed and drink quarts and quarts of cold water, which I thought very bad for him, and once downright refused to fill the jug, but he fell into one of his passions and said cold water had cured a Mr. Bell Vue Cellini; so all I could do was to let a wilful man have his way, thinking he knew his own constitution best, though I said to my master, I wished we were well rid of him. Only, as he's now so much worse, and quite out of his mind

like, I thought I had better come to you to ask whether or no to fetch Mr. Good, not liking to be the 'sponsible person myself."

66

What!" said Mrs. Wellford hastily, "do you

mean that he is delirious?"

"Perhaps that may be the word, ma'am-what we call light-headed."

"What can be done for this poor young man?” said Mrs. Wellford, turning to her daughters in much perturbation. "No doubt he caught a fever in that horrible gipsy cabin; and even the violent exercise he took before and after sitting in his wet clothes so long, would be sufficient to account for it. Something must be done. Do not be alarmed, Hannah. Betty shall fetch Mr. Good, and I will return with Mrs. Stokes to see him myself.

66 Are you not afraid of the rain?" said Hannah faulteringly.

"Not at all, this is not a time for such foolish fears." And in a few minutes, the goodnatured woman set out on her mission of charity.

"There goes Mr. Good!" exclaimed Rosina, after having kept watch at the window for a quarter of an hour. "I should amazingly like to

beckon to him as he comes back, and ask him

how Mr. Huntley is."

She remained at her post of observation for some time, without seeing any one pass except Tom Stokes with a pitchfork over his shoulder. At length Mr. Good was descried, retracing his way through mud and mire, "broadcloth without and a warm heart within"; and, no longer debating whether he would think it odd, Rosina leant out of the casement and began as far as she well could from the subject of her curiosity, by crying

"Good morning, Sir! Is Mrs. Good very well? You find the lane rather dirty, I am afraid. Pray, is mamma coming back soon?"

"No," returned he, “I have made her promise to stay with that imprudent young fellow yonder, till we can get somebody to supply her place for love or money. She has agreed to sit up with him to-night, as dame Stokes is not fit to be trusted—”

"Sit up with him?" repeated Hannah faintly, "is he then so very ill?"

"I am afraid you think Mr. Huntley in danger," said Rosina.

VOL. II.

"Delirious at present, but don't frighten yourselves. It is not infectious. I wish I had your brother with me just now, for my hands are very full;-there is a great deal of sickness about and Mr. Bacon does not get on at all;-quite in my way. Good by."

Rosina shook the raindrops from her curls as she drew back her head, and looked sorrowfully at her sister. The afternoon was passed in painful suspense. All Huntley's errors were forgotten in the interest now excited by his illness; and Rosina alternately tormented herself by foreboding the worst, and endeavoured to cheer Hannah by prognosticating the best. Hannah did not feel inclined to talk off her uneasiness. The calamity settled on her mind like a dead weight, and her own misgivings were combated by her own reasonings.

Towards dusk, Mrs. Wellford returned, her thick cloak completely drenched. "You need not take it away," said she as Hannah removed it from her shoulders. "I have only come for a few things that are wanted, and shall return immediately. Dame Stokes is the very worst nurse I ever