"And," said Maggie, "there is the doctor's carriage at the door. We will wait till he comes downstairs and ask him how soon Lena will be able to go about and have a little excitement, so that we can arrange about the fair. It is just a good chance for us. Then we will tell Lena what he says if he is encouraging."
Maggie and Bessie were almost as much at home in Colonel Rush's house as they were in their own, and had they chosen to go in and out twenty times a day, they would always have been welcome; and the young friends who accompanied them were about as much at their ease, although not one among the quintette would ever have been obtrusive or troublesome.
The doctor, who knew each one of them, being, as it happened, family physician to their respective households, was just about taking leave and was standing in the hall talking to Mrs. Rush.
"Hallo!" he said, his kindly face beaming upon the smiling flock who trooped in when Starr opened the door for them. "Hallo! what a bevy of birdlings! But how comes it that you are not at Miss Ashton's? I have just left my Laura there, and she is in a state of frantic expectation over this composition prize the finest authoress among you is to gain this morning. Are none of you interested?"
"Oh, yes, sir, all of us," answered Lily Norris, always ready to be spokeswoman; "we are going to Miss Ashton's in a few moments. But we are not to be there until twelve o'clock, and it is not that yet. And if the finest authoress is to have the prize, it will be Maggie's."
"So Laura seems to think," said Dr. Middleton, and shy Maggie, not caring to put forth in his presence any further disclaimer to the still undecided honors which her sister and friends seemed determined to put upon her head, smiled doubtfully.
"Doctor," she said, "would you mind telling me how soon you think
Lena will be able to bear a little excitement?"
The doctor looked grave.
"My child," he said, "I fear Lena is under more excitement now than is good for her." Then turning to Mrs. Rush, he added, "There is little use in expecting her to make rapid progress while she is fretting herself, as she is evidently doing, over some real or imaginary evil. Do you think it possible," an idea occurring to him, "that she is troubled about losing the chance to win this prize?"
"I scarcely think so," said Mrs. Rush. "She was even more than anxious for it at one time; but the principal object for which she wanted it is gained now, and she is not the child to fret herself over a disappointed ambition."