Page:The Rejuvenation Of Miss Semaphore.pdf/181

 apparently came back to her, for she went into a fit of the wildest hysterics.

"There now! there now!" said Mrs. Dumaresq soothingly.

"Don't talk to her like that, or she will be twice as bad," observed Miss Lord in a low stern voice. "Now, Miss Semaphore," she continued sharply, "that is quite enough. Just you stop laughing and crying, or I shall try the effect of a pail of cold water on you."

She evidently meant it, and with a few gasping, choking sobs, Prudence subsided. Though there were two or three violent relapses, each was promptly checked in turn, so that she allowed herself to be undressed, put to bed, tucked in, and left quietly weeping, until she fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.

Next morning she was too ill and unstrung to rise. The consuming anxiety that urged her to be up and doing, to recover her lost sister and flee from London, worked her into a fever. The medical woman, who, much to the patient's distaste, had established herself in the sick-room, and ruled with a rod of iron, absolutely refused to let her rise. Seeing the papers, and reading or writing