CHAPTER XX
MR. BARNES RETURNS
“Will you have another cup, Mrs. Mooney?”
“No, thank you; I will not, though better tea I never tasted. Well—if you are that set on it, I suppose I might as well.”
Maria poured out Mrs. Mooney’s third cup, and leaving the tea-pot near at hand, left her to sit and sing the praises of the two doctors to Nellie, who from a lifelong experience had developed into a really wonderful listener.
On her way down the hall Maria had to pass the open door of the Doctor’s bedroom, and as she glanced in she saw that he was sleeping peacefully, and that Dr. Crossett still sat quietly beside the bed, looking down earnestly into the pale, tired face of his old friend.
“He’s trying to find out what’s the matter,” she thought gratefully, “and he’ll do it, too, if anybody can; ‘course it’s natural that he’s awful unhappy about Miss Lola, but it looks to me like that ain’t all; somehow he seems to me more like he was afraid of something.”
DOCTOR MORTIMER WARNS LOLA THAT TOO MUCH EXCITEMENT MAY PROVE FATAL TO HER.
As she passed down the hall on her way to the front door, the bell rang, and she, anxious that the sleeper should not be disturbed, opened the door quickly. There in the hall stood a slender young fellow in the dark-blue uniform of the navy. His face, what little of it that was not hidden behind quite the widest smile that mortal countenance ever wore, was tanned to about the shade of a fashionable summer shoe, and above it his yellow hair made a symphony in color very good to look upon. At least this seemed to be Maria’s opinion, for at the first sight of him a look of gladness came into her eyes, the like of which many a man goes through his whole life without ever once seeing.