“You are right, Maria, I think,” said Dr. Barnhelm; “perhaps it would——” As he spoke the bell rang.
“There she is now!” exclaimed Maria joyfully. “She never remembers to take her key.”
She left the room hurriedly and went down the hall to the door as John sighed with relief and even Dr. Crossett beamed gratefully as he rose from his chair.
“You see! You two gloomy ones! Everything is all right. At least she has left her little Nellie, and at last we dine.”
As he spoke Maria reëntered the room looking startled, perhaps a little frightened.
“Mrs. Mooney, Doctor,” she announced. “Mrs. Mooney and Nellie!”
Mrs. Mooney and Nellie had followed Maria, and as she saw the three gentlemen, all of them now thoroughly alarmed, Mrs. Mooney hesitated, and put her arm about Nellie, who drew closer to her, awed by the magnificence of the brilliantly lighted room, and vaguely troubled by the unspoken question in the faces turned to her.
“Miss Lola?” inquired Dr. Barnhelm quietly.
“I made bold to come, sir,” she answered, “because the child’s arm is that bad she can’t seem to stand it.”
“Where is my daughter?”