"Oh yes, he will try. He has gone off now to see the colonel; but he knows it is all no use." Fritz sat down on the side of Ella's little cot, and suddenly burst out crying.
"I wish I had never told her anything about it," he said sobbing.
"Why, dear Fritz?" and Ella threw her fat arms round her brother's neck.
"That old cat Evelina told the policeman that since I had told Violet about the angels she has had no sleep and can eat nothing, and that in a few days she will be quite dead."
"Quite dead," echoed Ella mournfully; "and poor Fritz will never see her nor speak to her any more."
"Hush, Ella," cried Fritz, springing up from the bed angrily; "Fritz will see her again. Fritz will speak to Violet again. He will go this instant and ask the Lord Jesus this very day to make her quite well, to take all the sickness away from her; and the Lord Jesus must listen to Fritz this time, for he will go out on the very top of the house and call ever so loud, so loud that he must hear him." And Fritz, his face all quivering with the anguish of the moment, started up and rushed wildly out of the room; and Ella heard his feet ascending the little wooden ladder that led out among the nasturtiums and the red geraniums on to the red-tiled roof above.
CHAPTER XXIV. A GRIEVOUS DISAPPOINTMENT.
It was still quite early when Evelina drew back the curtains in the oriel window and let in the rosy morning light.