Jo knelt beside the invalid's chair and put a strong, tanned hand over Miss Emma's thin one.
"I didn't do anything, really—although I tried to," she protested. "You fainted——"
"Yes, I remember that, now!"
"And I managed to carry you as far as the window. But it was lucky that Sadie and Nan were there, for I could never have lifted you to the shed roof alone."
"I owe a great debt to all you girls," the invalid said slowly. "But I owe a little more to you, my dear, because you risked your life so gallantly and fearlessly to save mine. I wish there were something I could do to show you how I feel, Jo Morley."
"You can try to get well, if you please," said Jo with one of her quick smiles. "That would please me better than anything else!"
"Which reminds me, Miss Emma," broke in the soft voice of Mrs. Jameson, "that you have not yet told the girls your great news!"
The girls looked wonderingly from Miss Harrison to Mrs. Jameson, then back to the former again.
Miss Emma's face flushed. She made a motion as though to rise from her chair. She was trembling suddenly with an almost childish excitement.
"At the moment I heard Jo's voice in the room," she said swiftly, "I tried to struggle to my feet. In one great effort I did raise myself! For a moment I stood upon my feet!"