"I know, Sister, I know. I said that merely to quiet her. This is what I have feared all along. She is a frail mite, but I really thought that we had pulled her over the danger line. I hope it is nothing worse than pleurisy. We shall try hot applications first. I shall be back in a moment."
Sister Julia busied herself heating water and making other preparations; and the Doctor soon returned with his "telephone," as Mary called the instrument with which he had several times listened to her lungs.
"Now, dear, let me see whether I can find out just where the pain is——"
"Oh, it is right here, Uncle! On both sides right where my hands are—you don't need to listen—and it shoots—through me and—comes out under those bones—where the angels' wings grow."
"But we can do more to relieve the pain if I listen for a few minutes, pet."
The father and mother did not take their eyes off his face, which grew more and more grave. By the time he had finished the examination, there was little need for him to call the nurse to the bedside and motion them into the hall.
"I shall be perfectly honest with you," he began, "for I know that you are prepared for the worst. I fear pneumonia, but hope that we have caught the trouble in time. I can tell you nothing definite for some hours. The condition in which I find her now is the very one which Sister Julia and I have been guarding against; but I was so sure that all danger was past that I told Sister, when I came home this evening, to change her program and, instead of going to rest at that time and leaving Mary to us, Rob, to go to bed as soon as she had tucked her in for the night. This she did not do, but remained at the bedside until we came up, just as she has done every night from eleven o'clock on.
"With any other nurse, I might fear that some neglect had brought matters to this pass; but not with Sister Julia. She is a wonderful nurse, and we are blessed to have her, especially now. I have never lost a pneumonia patient when she was on the case. So we shall hope for the very best."
But though the Doctor tried to speak cheerfully, a cold fear gripped the hearts of all.