Odd, wasn’t it, that as soon as he stepped into the road the young doctor’s feet should turn in the direction of the High Park? The sly fellow had been calculating the time at which Marielle could arrive there, and had come to the determination to seek her and learn his fate from her own lips without further delay.
He was in such a hurry to reach the Rose-walk, and so absorbed in his own thoughts, that he narrowly escaped being run over at a street-crossing, but he never checked his pace until he actually reached the spot where he expected to find his love.
At first he failed to see her, and a blank feeling of disappointment crept over him. The next moment he descried her in the midst of a group of merry children. One darling tot had fallen and grazed her knee, and Marielle was sitting with the little one in her lap, kissing away the tears, and tenderly wiping the place with her handkerchief.
Magnus stood and watched her there with adoring eyes until, smiles having been restored to the baby face of the child, she put her down from her lap to run to her companions, and rose herself to go home.
Turning, she met the rapt gaze of Magnus Duncan—whom she had not hitherto perceived—which made her heart beat fast and the blood leap to her face. With an immense effort at self-control she held out her hand, with the remark:
“Dr. Duncan! I did not expect to meet you here.”
“No? I have been to see your mother.”
“She is not worse, is she?” cried Marielle hastily.
“Oh, no!” answered Magnus, smiling reassuringly. “In fact, she is making a splendid recovery, thanks to your good nursing.”
“Thanks to your kind care and attention, you mean,” responded Marielle. Then, her voice faltering a little: “Dr. Duncan, I cannot tell you how I have thought about it, or what it has been to me, but I can never, never thank you sufficiently for all your goodness to my darling mother. Oh! if I were rich I would show you my gratitude in a practical way, but I am only poor as yet, and thanks are all I have to give you.”