As she bent over the bed in grief and sorrow, Mrs. Malony was rewarded and startled at the same time. For the poor patient heaved a sigh, and slowly opened her eyes.
Then a faint smile stole over her lips.
"I had such a happy dream!" she whispered.
"Hush, dear; don't spake another word."
It wasn't the first, nor the second patient either, that Mrs. Malony had nursed, so she had all her wits about her.
She knew that at this very moment Mrs. Mackenzie's life was hanging by the merest thread, and there was no time to lose.
She quickly squeezed some of the juice of the meat into a saucer, and mixing it with a little wine, put it tea-spoonful after tea-spoonful into her patient's mouth.
Mrs. Mackenzie slept after this, a real not a dreamful sleep, and towards evening she awoke refreshed. A cupful of warm beef-tea was ready, and she smiled her thanks as she sipped it.
All that night Mrs. Malony sat up and nursed her, and when next day the doctor came, he was more than satisfied.
"She will do now," he told Mrs. Malony on the landing—"do for a time. If she could only be got down the Clyde to a cottage hospital I know of—Well, I'll do what I can."