"A little while; just before we sent for you. I--I hated to disturb you at first, but life is everything, and----" He gave her one deep, reassuring look. "Emma," he softly murmured, "if we save your sister, four hearts shall be happy. See if you can make her stir. Tell her that Frank is here, and wants to see her." Emma, with a brightening countenance, leaned over and kissed Hermione's marble-like brow. "Hermione," she cried, "Hermione! Frank wants you; he is tired of waiting. Come, dear; shall I not tell him you will come?" A quiver at the word _Frank_, but that was all. "It is Frank, dear; Frank!" Emma persisted. "Rouse up long enough just to see him. He loves you, Hermione." Not even a quiver now. Dr. Sellick began to turn pale. "Hermione, will you leave us now, just as you are going to be happy? Listen, listen to Emma. You know I have always told you the truth. Frank is here, ready to love you. Wake, darling; wake, dearest----" There was no use. No marble could be more unresponsive. Dr. Sellick rushed in anguish to the door. But the step he heard there was that of Huckins, and it was Huckins' face he encountered at the head of the stairs. "Is she dead?" cried that worthy, bending forward to look into the room. "I was afraid, _very_ much afraid, you could not do any good, when I saw how cold she was, poor dear." The Doctor, not hearing him, shouted out: "The antidote! the antidote! Why does not Frank come!" At that instant Frank was heard below: "Am I in time?" he gasped. "Here it is; I ran all the way"; and he came rushing up the stairs just as Huckins slipped from the step where he was and fell against him. "Oh," whimpered that old hypocrite, "I beg your pardon; I am so agitated!" But his agitation seemed to spring mainly from the fact that the antidote Frank brought was in powder and not in a bottle, which might have been broken in their encounter. Dr. Sellick, who saw nothing but the packet Frank held, grasped the remedy and dashed back into the room. Frank followed and stood in anguished suspense within the open doorway. Huckins crouched and murmured to himself on the stair. "Can we get her to take it? Is there hope?" murmured Emma. No word came in reply; the Doctor was looking fixedly at his patient. "Frank," he said solemnly, "come and take her hand in yours. Nothing else will ever make her unlock her lips." Frank, reeling in his misery, entered and fell at her feet.