Page:The trail of the golden horn.djvu/259

Rh With a cry of grief, the half-breed girl turned and fled from the room. A few minutes later Marion found her curled up in a corner weeping as if her heart would break. The nurse laid a gentle hand upon the girl’s shoulder, but she threw it off and shrank back from the touch.

“Oh, I am bad, bad!” she moaned. “Did you hear what he said? He was longing for me all the time, and I never knew it.”

“There, there, dear; you can’t help it now,” Marion soothed. “You made a mistake, but he will forgive you when he gets well.”

“But will he get well, Miss? Maybe he will die, and he will never know how sorry I am.”

“Let us hope that he will get better,” Marion encouraged. “When the doctor comes he may be able to do something for him.”

“Oh, I hope he will come soon, Miss. He will tell me how Tim is getting along. But suppose he is dead! If he is, then I shall die too. I don’t want to live with Tim gone.”

“Don’t worry too much about that, dear,” and Marion put her arm around the girl as she spoke. “The doctor will do all he can, never fear, and our Heavenly Father will do the rest. Have you prayed for your lover, Zell?”

“I have tried to, Miss, but I guess my prayers will do no good. I have been so bad that the Lord wouldn’t listen to me.”

“He certainly will, Zell. He has promised to hear us when we come to Him. Did He not say, ‘Call upon Me in the time of trouble and I will hear thee’? Isn’t that His promise? Why, then, should you doubt His word?”