"As safe and well as usual. Starvation does not seem to agree with her very well," answered Haidee, leading the way up-stairs with her flaring candle.
"It will break her proud spirit all the sooner," said Colville, brutally, as he followed them.
Haidee stepped into the hall, opened Lily's door and entered, nearly falling over the prostrate form of the girl. She started back in dismay.
"Why, what—the devil!" cried Pratt, entering behind her. "What has happened to the girl? Is she dead?"
He knelt down, felt the pulse, and laid his ear over the heart as Colville and Peter entered after him.
"She is in a faint," he said, looking up into Colville's frightened face. "Our arrival was most opportune. Haidee, bring wine or whatever stimulants you have in the house. Her vitality is exhausted. The late regimen has been too severe for her weak constitution, perhaps."
He straightened the still form out upon the floor and applied a vial of pungent smelling salts to her nostrils. In a moment life came fluttering back, and Lily's languid gaze opened upon the faces of her enemies. The white lids closed again and a heart-wrung sigh drifted over her lips.
Doctor Pratt lifted the light form in his arms and laid her upon the bed as Haidee entered, carrying a glass of wine. He took it from her hand and held it to the lips of his patient.
"Drink this, Miss Lawrence," he said, "you are weak and faint; it will revive you."
She drank it thirstily, and felt a momentary thrill of returning strength. Rising on her elbow she looked at them all languidly.