during the process of dusting, shaken out of a window in another room or in the staircase. A room thus treated will keep in perfect order for some time; but should the illness be long, an effort must be made to take the carpet up about every six weeks or two months, that it may be beaten and thoroughly aired. If carpets are made in the sensible fashion of squares, secured by brass nails with broad heads, there will be little difficulty in managing this; but it will not hurt the carpet to let it remain loose. In cases where the weekly removal is impossible, the floor must be wiped over carefully every day with a damp cloth, and tea-leaves used now and then, the patient being protected from the dust by screens; but this plan is only for use as a last resource in extreme cases. Under such circumstances, it is not a bad plan to have a small portion of the furniture, say a chair or table and an ornament or two, removed each day and thoroughly cleaned, out of the room; otherwise, it is almost impossible to keep things in proper order, in spite of daily dusting. BY MEAD AND STREAM. CHAPTER XLVIII.—ANXIETIES. Madge wakened with the weary sensation of one who has passed through a long nightmare. It was some minutes before she could recall the incidents of the previous day; still longer before she could realise the unhappy meaning of the scene with Philip, and the fact that Uncle Dick and Aunt Hessy had found in her conduct cause for grave displeasure. Surely she had been acting very wickedly, when those three, who were dearer to her than all the world beside, turned from her, and were vexed as well as pained by what she was doing, so far as they understood it. Surely Mr Beecham must be mistaken in the course he was pursuing—she did not even now doubt the goodness and generosity of his motives. There was only one way in which she could set the minds of her friends at ease; and that she must adopt, no matter what it might cost herself. She dare not hope that Philip would be readily satisfied and come back to her; but at least he should understand that she had been thinking of his interest more than of herself. And Uncle Dick and Aunt Hessy would be relieved from anxiety on her account, and then—who could tell?—maybe they would influence Philip. Maybe Uncle Dick would overlook his loss of fortune, and tell him that he never meant to separate them on such a sorry score as that. The one way which she saw to bring about this desirable consummation was to inform Mr Beecham that she could no longer keep his secret; and that, if he did not come to Willowmere within the week to release her, she would take back the pledge she had given him and explain everything to her relatives.