For a few moments Lester Stanwick paced up and down the hall lost in deep thought; his lips were firmly set, and there was a determined gleam in his restless black eyes. Suddenly he stopped short directly before the doctor, who stood regarding him with no very agreeable expression in his honest gray eyes. "How long will it be before the crisis is past--that is, how long will it be before she is able to be removed?" "Not under three weeks," replied the doctor, determinedly. "Good heavens!" he ejaculated, sharply. "Why, I shall have to--" He bit his lip savagely, as if he had been on the point of disclosing some guarded secret. "Fate is against me," he said, "in more ways than one; these things can not be avoided, I suppose. Well, doctor, as I am forced to leave to-day I shall leave her in your charge. I will return in exactly two weeks. She has brain fever, you say?" The doctor nodded. "You assure me she can not leave her bed for two weeks to come?" he continued, anxiously. "I can safely promise that," replied the doctor, wondering at the strange, satisfied smile that flitted like a meteor over his companion's face for one brief instant. "This will defray her expenses in the meantime," he said, putting a few crisp bank-notes into the doctor's hand. "See that she has every luxury." He was about to re-enter the room where Daisy lay, but the doctor held him back. "I should advise you to remain away for the present," he said, "your presence produces such an unpleasant effect upon her. Wait until she sleeps." "I have often thought it so strange people in delirium shrink so from those they love best; I can not understand it," said Stanwick, with an odd, forced laugh. "As you are the doctor, I suppose your orders must be obeyed, however. If the fever should happen to take an unfavorable turn in the meantime, please drop a line to my address, 'care of Miss Pluma Hurlhurst, of Whitestone Hall, Allendale,'" he said, extending his card. "It will be forwarded to me promptly, and I can come on at once." Again the doctor nodded, putting the card safely away in his wallet, and soon after Lester Stanwick took his departure, roundly cursing his luck, yet congratulating himself upon the fact that Daisy could not leave Elmwood--he could rest content on that score. Meanwhile the three venerable sisters and the young doctor were watching anxiously at Daisy's bedside. "Oh, my poor little dear--my pretty little dear!" sobbed Ruth, caressing the burning little hands that clung to her so tightly. "Won't you hide me?" pleaded Daisy, laying her hot cheek against the wrinkled hand that held hers. "Hide me, please, just as if I were your own child; I have no mother, you know." "God help the pretty, innocent darling!" cried the doctor, turning hastily away to hide the suspicious moisture that gathered in his eyes. "No one is going to harm you, little one," he said, soothingly; "no one shall annoy you."