Emma, with a brightening countenance, leaned over and kissed Hermione's marble-like brow.
"Hermione," she cried, "Hermione! Frank wants you; he is tired of waiting. Come, dear; shall I not tell him you will come?"
A quiver at the word Frank, but that was all.
"It is Frank, dear; Frank!" Emma persisted. "Rouse up long enough just to see him. He loves you, Hermione."
Not even a quiver now. Dr. Sellick began to turn pale.
"Hermione, will you leave us now, just as you are going to be happy? Listen, listen to Emma. You know I have always told you the truth. Frank is here, ready to love you. Wake, darling; wake, dearest——"
There was no use. No marble could be more unresponsive. Dr. Sellick rushed in anguish to the door. But the step he heard there was that of Huckins, and it was Huckins' face he encountered at the head of the stairs.
"Is she dead?" cried that worthy, bending forward to look into the room. "I was afraid, very much afraid, you could not do any good, when I saw how cold she was, poor dear."
The Doctor, not hearing him, shouted out: "The antidote! the antidote! Why does not Frank come!"
At that instant Frank was heard below: "Am I in time?" he gasped. "Here it is; I ran all the way"; and he came rushing up the stairs just as Huckins slipped from the step where he was and fell against him.