“And no one has had the charge of her, except you and the nurse here? You can both swear she has never been tampered with?”
“O! I think so, certainly, yes! Baby has never been from under the eye of one or the other of us. A young lady resident in the hotel—a Miss Brandt—has often nursed her and played with her, but one of us has always been there at the time.”
“A Miss—what did you say?” demanded the doctor, sharply.
“A Miss Brandt—a very good-natured girl, who is fond of children!”
“Very well then! I will go at once to the pharmacien’s, and get a prescription made up for your baby, and I hope that your anxiety may soon be relieved!”
“O! thank you, Doctor, so much!” exclaimed Margaret “I knew you would do her good, as soon as you saw her!”
But the doctor was not so sure of himself. He turned the case over and over in his mind as he walked to the chemist’s shop, wondering how such a state of exhaustion and collapse could have been brought about.
The baby had her first dose and the doctor had just time to wash and change his travelling suit before they all met at the dinner-table.
Here they found the party opposite augmented by the arrival of Monsieur Alfred Brimont, a young Brussels tradesman, who had come over to Heyst to conduct his sister home. He was trying to persuade Harriet Brandt to accompany Olga and stay a few days with them, but the girl—with a long look in the direction of Captain Pullen—shook her head determinedly.
“O! you might come, Harriet, just for a few days,” argued Olga, “now that the Bataille de Fleurs is over, there is nothing left to stay for in Heyst, and Alfred says that Brussels is such a beautiful place.”