'"Have I been very ill, Henrietta?"
'"Yes, dear, very ill indeed; but you are going to get better now, I hope."
'"I don't know. I thought you said—didn't you say something about a doctor?"
'"Yes, sweetheart; the governor sent you a doctor. He is coming again to-day."
'"And have I been very long ill?"
'"Only three days."
'"Only three days! but everything seems so long ago!"
'Even as I spoke, I remembered how Bessie had used the very same words; and I tried to raise myself on my elbow and look round, but I was much too weak to make the slightest movement without Henrietta's arm.
'"Where is Bessie?" I whispered.
'Henrietta's face changed, and she hesitated, as if doubtful what answer to give me; and, with a sudden pang, the thought came back to me of that night when I had cried myself to sleep, and that morning when, looking at the mattress where Bessie had been lying, I saw that she was no longer there. So I did not ask again, but passively swallowed the medicine that Henrietta brought me, and lay for a long time in silence, with my aching head in her lap. Then at length I repeated my first question, "Have you been writing to mamma?"