"Lean down here!" he said.
Patty put her ear down that nobody might hear.
"Where's Nettie?" asked Kike.
"About the house, somewhere," said Patty.
"Why don't she come in to see me?"
"Not because she doesn't care for you," said Patty; "she seems to be crying half the time."
Kike watched the door uneasily all that evening. But Nettie did not come. To have come into Kike's room would have been to have revealed her love for one who had never declared his love for her. The mobile face of Nettie disclosed every emotion. No wonder she was fain to keep away. And yet the desire to see him almost overcame her fear of seeing him.
When the doctor came in to see Kike after breakfast the next morning, the patient looked at him wistfully.
"Doctor Morgan, tell me the truth. Will I ever get up?"
"You can never get up, my dear boy," said the physician, huskily.