“Eunice,” said the doctor gravely, “are you afraid of—anything?”
A sudden wave of colour made her face for the moment beautiful. Tears came into her eyes, but she smiled as she said,—
“No, not afraid; I hope I should not be afraid even if I should be going to suffer all that I saw her suffer.”
“Eunice, why have you not told me before? It was hardly friendly to be silent with any such thought in your mind.”
“Well, it is as I said. A little sooner or later could make no difference.”
“And because you did not like to make your friends unhappy you ran this risk.”
The doctor was standing with his face to the door at which Fidelia at the moment entered, and his tone changed.
“Well, to-morrow you must send your little girl down to see my little girls, unless they should hear of her home-coming, and be up here this afternoon. No; they shall not come, nor any one else. You shall have this day to yourselves. And mind one thing—there must be no school-books about during vacation time. Miss Eunice, I will trust to you to see to that.”
And then he went away.