'No, Gladys, thank you; not to-night. I will be in the room to-night.'
'Then you will go to bed soon?'
'Yes, very shortly.'
The two women embraced one another tenderly.
'We can only pray for her, poor lamb,' said Mrs Prothero gently. 'I have given her to the Lord to do with her according to His good pleasure.'
'He will not leave her nor forsake her,' said Gladys.
Mrs Prothero sat a long time by her child's side watching her, but she slept so calmly that at last she went to the little table by the fire, and read her Bible. It was late—very late for the farm—when she undressed herself and lay down on the little bed, placed near the larger bed of Netta. Even then, more than an hour passed before she slept. The last thing she heard before she closed her eyes was her daughter's somewhat irregular breathing—the last words that rang in her ears were her 'God bless you, mother.'
Gladys, uneasy, she knew not wherefore, was in the room at about three o'clock in the morning. She had learnt to move so gently that the sleepers were not conscious of her presence. She was most thankful to find them sleeping.
Gladys was up and dressed by six o'clock. She was anxious to spare her mother all possible trouble, and to see that the household was astir before she arose. It was a cold, dark January morning. As she went down the passage, a candle in her hand, towards Netta's room, she felt the chill air press heavily around her. She put the candle on the floor, outside the room, and went in. The night-light had burnt out, and the fire was dim, though not extinguished. Gladys passes Mrs Prothero without awaking her, and stands at Netta's bedside.
She cannot see clearly the face of the sleeping Netta, but such a restless anxiety about her had haunted her all the night, that she stoops down to listen to her breathing. It is so faint that she kneels down, and puts her ear close to the face. So very faint it is, that she is not quite sure that she hears it at all. She goes into the passage for the candle, and meets Owen. She signs him to silence, and her pale face frightens him. He goes with her into Netta's room. Shading the candle with her hand, she again stoops over Netta, so does Owen.