"Try the dining-room," suggested Kate; "it is near dinner-hour; we will find some one there."
Doctor Frank ran down-stairs, three steps at a time, followed more decorously by his companions. Grace seated near the table, reading by the light of a tall lamp, was the only occupant. She lifted her eyes in astonishment at her brother's boisterous entrance.
"Where is papa?" Kate asked.
"Upstairs in the sick-room."
"Then wait here, Doctor; wait here, Agnes! I will go for him."
She ran lightly upstairs, and entered the sick man's bedroom. The shaded lamp lit it dimly, and showed her her father sitting by the bedside talking to his son. The invalid was better this evening—very, very weak, but no longer delirious.
"You are better, Harry dear, are you not?" his sister asked, stooping to kiss him; "and you can spare papa for half an hour? Can't you, Harry?"
A faint smile was his answer. He was too feeble to speak. Miss Danton summoned Ogden from one of the outer rooms, left him in charge, and bore her father off.
"What has happened, my dear?" the Captain asked. "There is a whole volume of news in your face."
Kate clasped her hands around his arm, and looked up in his face with her great earnest eyes.