"Yes--if he will answer me; but--I don't know how it is--I receive no answer to my letters," faltered the girl.
"Is there no one else to whom you can write in Yorkshire--I mean, so that you can get to know his feeling about you?"
"There's only Susan Gaunt, our old servant, I might write to her; but I scarcely think that she can do anything, though she has known him since he was a boy, and he is always nice to her, and talks to her quite freely."
"Well, ask her about him. And write to him, too, once more, asking him straight out if he has changed towards you."
"I think I will," said Doris. "It can do no harm."
She accordingly wrote that evening both to Susan and to Bernard.
The old servant answered immediately. Her letter was as follows:
"MY PRECIOUS MISS DORIS,
"At last you send me your address, and I hasten to write these few lines to ask if you are well, as this doesn't leave me so at present.
"My heart is very bad, dearie, and the doctor says I may die quite suddenly any time. Well, I've always liked that verse--