Just then the doctor came to take her to the room prepared, where a pleasant-faced nurse was in waiting.
Some hours afterwards, when Dr. Norman's task was done, and poor little Sophy lay white but peaceful on her bed, she looked up at the nurse, saying with a whimsical smile—
"I should like to see the grumpy man."
"And so you shall, my dear," was the nurse's hasty assurance. "Whoever can that be?" she muttered under her breath.
"Why, the grumpy man downstairs," reiterated Sophy.
"Would it be right?" questioned her father, who knelt by the bed, holding a small hand clasped firmly in his own.
"I'll see what the doctor says," replied the nurse, retiring into the adjoining room.
She speedily returned to say that Dr. Norman would go down himself to bring up old Mr. Waldron.
Sophy turned a pale face contentedly to her father.
"Dear dadums," she whispered, "now you will see my friend. He is not such a bad old man, though he does grunt sometimes."