“Oh! what is it? what is it? Margery, Margery! What has happened to her?”
At the sound of her voice the same tremor which had run through Margery’s frame when Grandma Ferguson came in, returned, and this time with greater intensity. There was a faint, moaning cry, which sounded like “Queenie, oh, Queenie!” and, stepping forward, the physician said:
“Speak to her again, Miss Hetherton. She seems to know you, and we must rouse her, or she will die.”
Thus importuned, Reinette knelt beside her friend, covering her face and hand with kisses, and saying to her, softly:
“Dear Margery, do you know me? I am Queenie. Speak to me, if you can, and tell me what is the matter? What made you sick so suddenly?”
“No, no! oh, no! Go away! I cannot bear it! You hurt!” Margery said, as she tried to disengage her hand from Reinette. And those were the only words she spoke for several days, during which she lay perfectly still, never moving hand or foot, but apparently conscious most of the time of what was passing around her, and always seeming happier when Grandma Ferguson was with her, and agitated when Reinette came in with her caresses and words of sympathy and love.
It was a most singular case, and greatly puzzled the physician, who said once to Reinette:
“It seems like some mental shock more than a bodily ailment. Do you know if anything has happened to disturb her, which, added to over-fatigue, might produce this utter and sudden prostration?”
Queenie hesitated a moment, and then replied:
“She did hear something which surprised her greatly, but I should hardly think it sufficient to affect her so much.”