"Very well," said Minnie, "you have been so good to me and I am beginning to love you so much."
It was touching to see the ripening love between those two long-suffering ones. Ellen would comb Minnie's hair, and do for her every office in her power. Still Minnie continued feeble. The suffering occasioned by her refusal of Louis; the hard study and deep excitement through which she had passed told sadly upon her constitution; but she was young, and having a large share of recuperative power she slowly came back to health and strength, and when the spring opened Thomas decided that she should return again to her school in P.
Chapter XII
Let us now return to Carrie Wise, whom we left parting with Minnie.
"Where is Minnie?" said two of her schoolmates, who observed that
Carrie had come home alone.
"Oh," said she, "one of the strangest things I ever heard of happened!"
"Well, what was it?" said the girls; and by this time they had joined another group of girls.
"Why this morning, Minnie and I walked out shopping, and just as I came out of Carruthers' I met an old friend of mother's, and stopped to speak with her, and I said 'Minnie, just wait a minute.'"
"She passed on, and left me talking with Mrs. Jackson. When I joined her, I found a colored woman talking to her, and she was trembling from head to foot, and just as pale as a ghost; and I said, 'Why, Minnie, what is the matter?'"
"She gasped for breath, and I thought she was going to faint, and I got real scared. And what do you think Minnie said?"