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Rh Of course, she knew this better than any other person in the house. "Well", she continued, "I am going out, pour faire quelques courses en fiacreto do some shopping in a carraige [sic]. I shall call Dr. John, and send him to the child. I will that he sees her this very evening; her cheeks are flushed, her pulse is quick: you will receive him—for my part, I shall be from home".

Now the child was well enough, only warm with the warmth of July; it was scarcely less needful to send for a priest to administer extreme unction than for a doctor to prescribe a dose; also madame rarely made “courses” as she called them, in the evening: moreover, this was the first time she had chosen to absent herself on the occasion of a visit from Dr. John. The whole arrangement indicated some plan; this I saw, but without the least anxiety. “Ha! ha! madame!” laughed Light-heart the beggar, “your crafty wits are on the wrong tack”.

She departed, attired very smartly in a shawl of price, and a certain chapeau vert tendresoft green hat [sic]—hazardous, as to its tint, for any complexion less fresh than her own, but, to her, not unbecoming. I wondered what she intended: whether she really would send Dr. John or not; or whether indeed he would come: he might be engaged.

Madame had charged me not to let Georgette sleep till the doctor came; I had therefore sufficient occupation in telling her nursery tales and palavering the little language for her benefit. I affected Georgette; she was a sensitive and loving child; to hold her in my lap, or carry her in my arms was to me a treat. To-night she would have me lay my head on the pillow of her crib: she even put her little arms round my neck. Her clasp and the nestling action with which she pressed her cheek to mine, made me almost cry with a tender pain. Feeling of no kind abounded in that house; this pure little drop from a pure little source was too sweet: it penetrated deep, and subdued the heart, and sent a gush to the eyes.

Half an hour or an hour passed; Georgette murmured in her soft lisp that she was growing sleepy. “And you shall sleep”, thought I, “malgré maman and médicindespite mum and medicine [sic], if they are not here in ten minutes”.

Hark! There was the ring, and there the tread, astonishing the staircase by the fleetness with which it left the steps