Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/120

116 response. He waited a moment and then opened the door and softly entered. The room was so quiet he had a sudden fear that the child might have left. But no! There she lay on his Tom's bed. She looked quite different from the girl who had stood before him not so many hours ago and defied him. The strained, excited look had left the little face. In its place was one of perfect peace.

"Almost as though she had died," flashed through Major Taylor's mind. "Thank God, though, for the color on cheeks and lips and that sweetly taken breath."

Long he stood and gazed at her, his stern features working strangely and an occasional tear finding its way unheeded down his wrinkled cheeks. He longed for her to open her eyes and once more smile into his as she had in the morning after inspecting the persons gathered around her bed, but Nature had taken matters into her own hands and was working her perfect cure on the tired child. The old man finally crept out. He felt happier than he had since Tom left home. Rebecca slept on and on. Daylight faded into twilight, twilight melted into moonlight, and still she slept. The Misses Taylor were sulking because of this interloper that had come