"I wonder now--" she thought. "I wouldn't have gone out, but she was in such a beautiful sleep; I just crept in on tiptoe and there she was smiling in her sleep and looking as happy as happy could be. So I said to myself--`Miss Nesta'll be in in no time, and if not there are the other young ladies.' So I went to cook and said--`Cook, be sure you run up to Missis when she rings her bell.'" Susan had now returned to the kitchen. "You didn't hear Missis ring by any chance, did you, Fanny?" she said to her fellow servant. "No, I said I'd go up to her if she did ring." "Then it's all right," said Susan. "Why, what's the matter? How white you are." "I--I don't quite know. But Miss Marcia came back and seemed in no end of a taking, at the house not being lit up." "Let Miss Marcia mind her own business," said Fanny, in a temper. "Don't you say anything against her, Fanny. Oh, my word, there's the bell, now. I hope to goodness there's nothing wrong." Susan rushed upstairs; her knees, as she expressed it, trembling under her. She burst open the door. "Send Fanny for the doctor at once. Get me some hot water and some brandy. Be quick; don't wait a moment. Above all things, send Fanny for the doctor. Tell her to take a cab and drive to Dr Anstruther's house. Be as quick as ever you can." Marcia had turned on the gas in her mother's room and lit it, and now she was bending over that mother and holding her hand. The poor woman was alive, but icy cold and apparently quite unconscious. The girl felt herself trembling violently. "They have neglected her; I can see that by the look of the room," she thought. "The window still open, the blinds still up, the position of this sofa--all show that she was neglected. And I, too, left her. Why did I go? Oh, poor mother; poor mother." Tears streamed from Marcia's eyes; they fell upon the cold hand. Marcia put her fingers on the pulse; it was still beating, but very feebly. Susan hurried up with a great jug of hot water, and the brandy bottle. "Mix some brandy quickly for me, Susan; make it strong. Now, then, give it to me." With some difficulty Marcia managed to put a few drops between the blue lips, and the next minute the invalid opened her eyes. She fixed them on Marcia, smiled, shuddered, and closed them again, collapsing once more into unconsciousness. It was in this condition that Dr Anstruther found her when he entered the house a quarter of an hour later. "I feared it," he paid, just glancing at Marcia. "No, it is not death," he added, seeing the look of appeal and self-reproach in the girl's eyes; "but it might have been. Had you been a few minutes later we could have done nothing. Now, then, we will get her into bed."