'You are a brave lad,' said the Duke. 'I 'll never forget it—never. And that fine horse—that bonnie beastie—if she doesn't ride him again, no one else shall. He 'll browse in my grounds, and live happy till his dying day.'
'Oh, but he 'd die!' cried Jasper. 'Dear Duke of Ardshiel, I think, down deep in my heart, that Hollyhock will recover.'
Meanwhile, in the sickroom, the girl who had gone through so much raved and moaned, and went over and over again the terrible feat she had achieved, and over and over again one special name came to her lips. 'Leuchy, you might have kissed me. I do think you might have kissed me. I 'm wondering if she 'd kiss me now, before I go away.'
Hollyhock kept up this fearful moaning until both the great doctors arrived. They saw that Hollyhock was quite delirious, and they listened to her wild and rambling words. Of course, George Lennox was in the child's room, his heart in truth nearly broken; but Hollyhock did not know that he was there. She was thinking more of that kiss which had been refused than of anything else just then.
Ah! why was Leuchy so hard—harder than a rock?'
The doctors noticed the constant repetition of the girl's remark, and having spoken very gravely of the case to Mrs Constable, and to the poor stricken father, went down to interview the Duke.
'Well, your Grace,' Sir Alexander Macalister said, 'we have no good news for you. The lassie is ill—very ill. She's fretting over and over for a girl she calls Leucha. We think that if, perhaps, she saw Leucha, it might do her good, and calm her, and tend to bring down her fever. It runs very high at present. She talks of a girl who refuses to kiss her.'
'My word!' said Ardshiel; 'and you think she ought to see that creature?'
'It might be wise,' said Sir Alexander Macalister. 'It might be the means of saving her life.'
'Then run, my lad, run for your bare life, and bring that girl to her. I met the girl in the avenue crying like anything. I gave her no sort of comfort; but if the doctors think that she may save brave Hollyhock, she shall come. Go at once, laddie; go at once. You know who she is.'