"Then I'll go downstairs and telephone for him," said Alice. "Poor daddy is so worried."
"I'll go over and see what I can do," volunteered Mrs. Dalwood. "I have an old-fashioned cough medicine I used for the children."
She took a bottle with her as she slipped across the hall to the flat of her neighbors. Russ went with her, anxious to do what he could.
But Mr. DeVere shook his head as the bottle of simple home remedy was proffered.
"Thank you very much, Mrs. Dalwood," he said hoarsely. "It is very kind of you, but I'm afraid to try it. I have had this trouble before, and——"
"You have, Father?" cried Ruth in surprise. "You never told us about it."
"I will—after the doctor comes," he said in a low voice.
Alice came back from using the telephone of the neighbor on the floor below to say that Dr. Rathby would soon be over.
"And then we'll have you all right again, Daddy!" she said, and the merry, laughing light that had disappeared came back into her eyes.
It was rather anxious waiting for the physician, but when he came his cheery, breezy presence seemed to fill them all with hope. He took Mr. DeVere into a room by himself, and made a careful examination. The girls could hear the young doctor's sharp, quick questioning, and their father's hoarse, mumbled replies. Then followed a period of nervous silence, broken by more talk.