‘You are a good fellow,’ said Mr Courtney, wringing the Doctor’s hand, ‘and I do not limit the confidence I place in you. Jessica shall return with us, and we will leave Quita entirely in your care.’
‘You shall have no cause to regret it,’ replied Dr Fellows, as he accompanied them to the door of the bungalow. ‘You can send down as often as you like for news of her, and I shall be found at my post, ready to report on her progress. But I honestly anticipate restoring her to you in a very short time.’
As he returned from seeing them off, and met his daughter’s eye, his face changed, and his expression became very grave.
‘That is well over,’ he ejaculated, with a sigh, ‘and the rest remains, Lizzie, with you and me.’
‘Which means, father, that she is safe as far as we are concerned. Am I to go into her room?’
‘No; I should prefer you should not. There is no necessity for your presence there, and I wish to leave you as unfettered as I possibly can. You have no notion how this calamity happened, Liz?’
‘Not the slightest. I know so few of her friends. I have not even heard that she had an attachment for any one.’
‘Well, it is a terrible business, but we must stand her friends, and see her through with it. She has told me nothing, poor child; but she has thrown herself upon my mercy, and entreated me to save her from the wrath and reproaches of her parents, and for their sakes I have promised to do so. She implores that even you shall not be told of her misfortune, and I have been obliged to humour her. We must keep up the deception of the fever, and as soon as she is sufficiently recovered to return home, the danger will be over.’
‘But—Mammy Lila!’ gasped Liz.
‘Mammy Lila will do as I tell her, my dear, and at all risks this child’s reputation must be saved. Everything else is an after consideration,’ replied the Doctor, as he stumbled slightly, and saved himself by catching at the back of a chair.