"No, they don't know anything about it," said Teddy. "And Aunt Melissa and old Catherine are getting ready to walk here, so I must hurry back and stop them; and I think Aunt Joanna is dying, Dr. Morton, so please hurry."
Before the doctor could reply she had mounted her wheel and had disappeared in the shadow of the trees at the gate. Without waiting another moment he stepped into his buggy, and turning his tired horse once more away from home, he drove after her as quickly as possible.
Teddy reached the house just as her aunt, clothed with the care which she had suspected, and accompanied by the still half-asleep Catherine, emerged from the front door. The sight of some one at the foot of the steps nearly caused Miss Melissa to faint with horror upon the spot.
"Oh!" she gasped. "Burglars! Murder!"
"No, it isn't, Aunt Melissa. It's only Teddy. You needn't go for the doctor; he is coming."
"Child, what do you— Catherine, your arm, please! Surely you haven't been—and on that!"
The unwonted excitement under which Miss Melissa was laboring caused her to be more incoherent even than usual.
"Yes, I have been for him," said Teddy, coolly, as she lifted the bicycle up the steps and stood it on the piazza, "and here he comes now."
The roll of wheels and the quick tread of a horse's hoofs were heard upon the avenue, and in another moment the doctor had alighted. Miss Melissa, incapable of further speech, turned and followed him into the house.