Egbert still made no reply, and Mrs. Bonstone, getting up, went to the hearth-rug, rolled it back, and busied herself in making a fire. When it was blazing nicely, she spread an eider-down puff over a big chair, and said to mistress, “Your back must be aching, Clossie. You would better sit here.”
Mistress smiled in a grateful way, and sitting down in the big chair, took Egbert on her lap.
Presently the door opened, and in came master. He looked tremendously excited in a quiet way, but still he took time to flash a glance of appreciation at his wife.
Behind him stood a nurse—a strange nurse, not the baby’s.
“Will you let me have the boy, please,” she said to mistress, “and quickly. The doctor is waiting.”
Mistress let him go, then she turned inquiringly to her husband.
He dropped down beside her, and laid his hand on her lap. “A miracle, Claudia. The child’s mother has come back to him. It was a case of suspended animation. He probably saved her life by the application of heat. I never heard of a similar occurrence. I shall question the doctor later.”
“Oh! thank God, thank God,” cried Mrs. Bonstone, and she sank on her knees at the other side of the fireplace.
Mistress didn’t say anything, but she stared at me, at her husband, and at Mrs. Bonstone. Finally she murmured, “’Twas the dog that did it.” Then she got up, and went quickly to her baby’s room. Taking his little soft hand between her own, and very gently lest she should wake him, she dropped loving mother kisses on it.