'Now, listen,' he said when he could find his voice. 'Is there danger of her life?'
'We don't know; we are not sure,' said Mrs Macintyre. 'She is at present in a very high fever, and the doctor has been to see her, your Grace.'
'I tell you, madam, that I 'll send, at my own expense, for the best doctors in Edinburgh, even in London. That lassie's life has got to be saved, and my pocket is wide open for the purpose. I wonder, now, if I could peep at her. I 'd very much like to.'
'I greatly fear not to-day, your Grace. She has to be kept very quiet.'
'Ah, well! The bravery of the girl! Who else but herself would ride Lightning Speed with the moon at the full? Here's her locket. I chose it a little finer than the others, because she 's a finer lass, and I guessed her deed of daring would be a deed of daring, truly. Keep it for her, madam, and send for the specialists.'
The Duke abruptly left the house, and Mrs Macintyre, with her eyes full of tears, put Hollyhock's special locket aside without even opening it, and gave orders in the Duke's name that the greatest doctors be summoned to the bedside of the sick girl. Then she called her most esteemed English teacher to her side.
'You must do it, my dear,' she said.
'Do what, dear Mrs Macintyre?'
'Why, I'm nearly as much broken down as the Duke. The poor lassie! You have read the essays, and know the deeds of daring, and have gone through the different subjects very carefully, Miss Graham. Then, will you now give the lockets to the girls you think most deserving? The locket given for valour is Hollyhock's by every right. The Duke desires that she shall have it, and I 'll put it away for her until she is well enough to receive it.'
The Duke, who hated motor-cars, and still kept to the old-fashioned magnificent carriage with its pair of spirited horses, was driving down the avenue. He was nearly heart-broken with grief. If that girlie died, he felt that his gray hairs would go down with sorrow to the grave. He had come up that avenue so full of hope, he was driving down equally full of despair. He was not content to trust wholly to Mrs Macintyre. He himself would telephone immediately to the best doctors in the land. On his way down the avenue he was startled by hearing the bitter sobbing of a girl. The sobbing was so terrible in its intensity that he could not forbear from drawing the check-string, pushing his snowy head through the open window of the great carriage, and calling out, 'Who 's there? Who's making that noise?'