“No, I'd like to be alone, I have so much work to do.”
“Dear me, dear me!” thought Mr. Evringham, “this is very distressing. She seems to have lucid intervals, and then so quickly gets flighty again.”
“Besides, I like to think of the Ravine of Happiness,” continued the child, “and the brook. Supposing I could lay my cheek down in the brook now. The water is so cool, and it laughs and whispers such pretty things.”
“Now if you would try to go to sleep, Jewel,” said Mr. Evringham, “it would please me very much. Good-by. I shall come to see you again to-night.” He stooped his tall form and kissed the child's forehead, and her hot lips pressed his hand, then he went out.
At the foot of the stairs he encountered Mrs. Forbes waiting, and hastily put behind him the hand that held the chicken.
“Well, sir?”
“She's very badly off, very badly off, I'm afraid.”
“I hope not, sir. Children are always flighty if they have a little fever. What about dinner, sir?”
“Have anything you please,” returned Mr. Evringham briefly. “I wish to see Dr. Ballard as soon as he arrives. Tell Zeke I shall not go until the next train.” With these words the broker entered his study, and his housekeeper looked after him in amazement. It was the first time she had ever seen him indifferent concerning his dinner.
“I wonder if he thinks she's got something catching,” she soliloquized. Then a sudden thought occurred to her. “No great loss without some small gain,” she thought grimly. “'T would clear the house.”