"Why doesn't Abraham come?"
"He was here not very long ago," I said, and asked her to take some food, not wishing her to question me.
"Food!" she said, "what an odd word! Yes, so that you give it to me in pleasant guise."
"What is pleasant to you to-day?"
"Something soft and cool."
What could I give her? It was very convenient having Sophie so near. This must be Miss Axtell's self who had spoken. Delighted with the change, I ran quickly down to beg of sister Sophie a little skill in preparing some dish suitable to the illness up-stairs.
"I'll go and make something," she said.
And straightway taking off her hat and cloak, and tossing them just where mine had gone two nights before, she followed willing Katie to regions where I had not been, and I went back to find my patient perfectly herself,—only oblivious of time. She asked me if the various preludes to the sad event had been properly done. I answered that it was over.
"And I was not to know it?"
I had heard that tone of voice, surely, somewhere else in life. Where could it have been? I thought of my tower, and of that dress in there. Was never to come chance of seeing it? It seemed quite probable, for the lady asked to have the doors opened through.