"Ah! there's my good little fairy," said the kind-hearted man, taking her in his arms and kissing her. "Look in my pockets, little one, and see what you can find."
With delightful unconsciousness of the shadows around her the child fumbled in his pockets and soon pulled out a picture-book.
"No candy yet?" she exclaimed in disappointment.
"No candy at all, Bertha, nothing but good plain food till next winter. You make sure of this, I suppose," he said significantly to the elder sister.
"Yes, as far as possible. I will wait for you here."
They ascended to a large airy room on the second floor. Even to Haldane, Mr. Poland appeared far down in the dark valley; but he was in that quiet and conscious state which follows the first stage of the fever, which in his case, owing to his vigorous frame, had been unusually prolonged.
Without a word the doctor felt the sick man's pulse, who bent upon him his questioning eyes. From the further side of the bed, Mrs. Poland, sitting feebly in her chair, also fixed upon the physician the same intense searching gaze that Haldane had sustained from the daughter. Dr. Orton looked for a moment into her pale, thin face, which might have been taken as a model for agonized anxiety, and then looked away again, for he could not endure its expression.
"Orton, tell me the truth; no wincing now," said Mr. Poland in low, thick utterance.
"My dear old friend, it cuts me to the heart to say it, but if you have anything special that you would like to say to your family I think you had better say it now."
"Then I am going to die," said the man and both his tone and face were full of awe; while poor Mrs. Poland looked as if in extremis herself.