Just at that moment into the room danced Muriel, leading the two laughing girls, whose heavy wraps had been removed.
The older woman turned to greet them and the physician went to his own room to prepare for his evening meal.
“Isn’t this just like a party?” Rilla exclaimed half an hour later when they were seated about the long table. “Oh, girls, I had been hoping that you would come for a week-end, as you had promised, but how did you happen to be with Uncle Lem?”
“We met Doctor Winslow in the station at New York and when we told him that we were coming to stay at the inn in Tunkett for a few days he declared that we must be your guests in his home, and, of course, we were only too glad to accept.”
Many times during the evening repast the physician’s eyes wandered to the face of his ward. Her cheeks were glowing, almost feverishly, and the light in her eyes was unnatural and her excited chatter, he was sure, was not entirely because of the unexpected arrival of her friends.
When they were leaving the table, he drew her aside, saying, “Muriel, I would like to see you in my study.”
The girl excused herself and accompanied him. As soon as the door was closed, the physician turned and placed his cool hand on her cheeks and brow. He said: “Little girl, are you ill or has something happened that is troubling you?”
To his great surprise Muriel threw her arms about his neck and began to sob.
“No, Uncle Lem, nothing troubles me; that is, it doesn’t yet. Uncle Barney has written a letter to my own father to tell him about me, and, oh, Uncle Lem, what if he should not care for me? Every night since I was little I’ve prayed for that dear father who never came for me, and I’ve prayed God to send him to me some time because my girl-mother so loved him; but now that at last he is to know about me I am so afraid that he will not want me.”
This, then, had been the real cause of her feverish excitement.