When the doctor heard the story from his wife, he laughed. "This explains a good deal that had puzzled me about Miss Mary the last few weeks. But leave it to me, I am going to Fairfield to-morrow, and I shall find out this secret, you may rely upon it."
So the next morning, he walked into the schoolmaster's house, and to Mrs. Murray's great astonishment, he said, "Now, Mary, you have been looking so much better the last week or two, I want to see if you cannot walk a few steps, at least."
"Oh, doctor but how about the two years she was to lie on her back? They are not at an end yet," said Mrs. Murray, in a tone of alarm.
"Perhaps not; but she may have improved more rapidly than was thought possible when the doctors decreed two years for her on the couch; certainly she has been much better the last few weeks," he said.
"She has slept better, and her appetite has been better," admitted Mrs. Murray.
"And she has had a little more company, I hear," said Mr. Perceval, looking quizzically at Mary, who knew then that Elsie had told the secret, as she said she should.
"I could walk round the garden, if mother would let me," said Mary, desperately.
"We shall see about that afterwards. Let me see, now, how you can walk across the room with my help," and the doctor put his hand under her arm.
"Capital!" he exclaimed, as he led her back to the couch. "Now, Mrs. Murray, she may go for a little walk every day in the open air, say to the top of the garden and back, when it is fine; if not, then a walk up and down the room for a few minutes, and I will see her again in a day or two."
"Oh, thank you," exclaimed Mary; "and please tell Elsie about it, for she has helped me to get better," she added.