Pattie went on her way, a good deal cheered. After all, Mrs. Cragg's opinion, and the opinion of Mrs. Smithers, were both unimportant. Things said might be painful; but they should not touch Pattie's peace. And as for her father, he was beyond the reach of any such little earthly gnat-bites. Another subject took hold of her mind. How had Dot been getting on during her absence? Pattie looked at her watch, and found that she had been fully an hour away. She had meant to stay only half an hour; but busy thought had made time slip by faster than she knew. A whole hour for the little invalid alone with Mrs. Cragg! Pattie quickened her steps. As she reached and opened the house-door it was the door in the side street through which she and Mrs. Cragg usually went in and out— screams saluted her ears. Screams in Dot's voice. Pattie hurried towards the bedroom, and opened that door also. Mrs. Cragg was standing by the bed, with a medicine-glass in her hand, which she was plainly trying to force Dot to drink from. Dot was resisting with all her little might and main, shrieking indignantly as she fought. Pattie gave one glance at the bottle on the table, from which, apparently, Mrs. Cragg had poured a portion into the tumbler, and then, ghastly pale, she rushed forward. CHAPTER XVIII A Dire Mistake "RIDICULOUS fuss and nonsense!" exclaimed Mrs. Cragg. "Never saw anything like it!" The doctor had taken his departure minutes later than Pattie, and Cragg had into the room. Dot lay with wistful watching the door through which Pattie disappeared. Mrs. Cragg jerked her chair. "Absurd rubbish! Just when I've no end of things to see to. But it's Pattie all over!" "What's the matter now?" asked Cragg mildly. "Where is Pattie, did you say?" "I didn't say she was anywhere, Cragg!" "But she must, of course, be—somewhere. Is anything the matter?" "Matter enough; as you'd know if you hadn't got your head in the clouds, as usual. Here am I, tied hand and foot, just for nothing in the world, but because Pattie chooses to go grumbling about herself to Mr. May he says she's to go out for a walk. Wanting a walk at this time of day! I never heard such nonsense!" "Pattie did look white this morning," observed Cragg. "She didn't more than usual. Pattie always is a washed-out creature. It don't make a grain of difference whether she's out-of-doors or in, for the matter of that." "At any rate, if the doctor says it—" "Oh, if the doctor says Putworth mustn't eat anything except green cheese, it'll have to do it, I suppose! I've no notion of that sort of thing. Mr. May don't know everything, after all; and he's easy taken in by a designing girl." "You don't call Pattie—" "I call Pattie what she is, Mr. Cragg." "And all these weeks she has been slaving here—" Mrs. Cragg broke into the half-spoken sentence: "Slaving, indeed! Who gives Pattie board and lodging, I'd like to know? What would become of her if it wasn't for us, Mr. Cragg?"