"It isn't quite safe for him to do so. Unfortunately, such people don't know their own heads. I will come in again after tea," said the doctor, as he went out of the house, at the front door; for he had not left his hat in the library.
"I am so glad Michael is better!" continued Nellie. "When I saw him drop, I felt as cold as ice, and I was afraid I should drop too before I could get to the library."
"Did you see him fall, Nellie?" asked her father.
"Yes; he gave a kind of groan, and then fell; he was—"
"Gracious!" exclaimed Captain Patterdale, interrupting her all of a sudden.
He turned on his heel, and walked rapidly into the library. Nellie was startled, and was troubled with a suspicion that her father had a coup de soleil, or coup de something-else; for he did not often do anything by fits and starts. She followed him into the library. It was a fact that the captain had left his hat there; but it was not for this article, so necessary in a hot day, that he hastened thus abruptly into the room. Nellie found him flying around the apartment in a high state of excitement for him. He was looking anxiously about, and seemed to be very much disturbed.
"What in the world is the matter, father?" asked Nellie.
"Where is your mother?"
"She has gone over to Mrs. Rodman's."
"Hasn't she been back?"