These two days Miss Tuttle had nursed her most carefully, admitting, by the doctor’s orders, no one but himself.
In vain Jessie Stirling pleaded to come in and help nurse the patient; Miss Tuttle sent her ruthlessly away.
“Doctor Barnes exacts perfect quiet, and trusts her only to me,” she said, proudly.
Jessie retired, baffled and angry, to cogitate over the mystery of Chester Olyphant’s disappearance.
For since he had gone to bring the doctor to Leola, no one had seen his face.
Jessie had by no means expected him to retreat from the field of battle. Instead, she had looked for him to march off with victory on his banners, the battle gained, the prize won. She knew that if Chester could get an opportunity to tell her uncle that he was rich and would pay off the mortgage on Wheatlands, he could easily gain his ends and marry Leola.
It was in dread of this that she had incited him to anger against Chester, hoping to prevent their coming to an understanding.
But Chester’s unexplained disappearance had startled and surprised everyone, for only this morning Mrs. Gray, the widow at whose cottage home he boarded, had come to Wheatlands to seek him, saying he had not been back for two days.
Diligent inquiry revealed the fact that Doctor Barnes was the last person who had seen him at all, having left him alone in the hall the day he had brought him to see Leola.
Widow Gray was quite alarmed, and did not know what to think.