"It won't last long," whispered her cousin confidently. But the rain continued to come down steadily and incessantly, so that it seemed impossible for either of them to attend to the service for the fright this had caused them. "Perhaps mamma did not go before the rain came on, and she will send the carriage," whispered Isabel when the service was over, and the people began to move. Mabel nodded. "We will wait here until it comes," she said. "You sit still, and I'll go and look if it is here yet." Mabel made several journeys to the church door, but each was unsuccessful. And at last they began to see that they would have to leave the church, for the sexton wanted to close the doors. "You'll get a cab round the corner," he said. And not knowing what else to do, the two girls started off in quest of one. But they walked nearly half a mile, and got very wet before one was found. Isabel went to bed as soon as she reached home, and Mabel took care that every remedy she knew of as being good for a cold should be promptly applied. And doubtless it did her cousin a great deal of good, but it could not undo the mischief that the long walk, and the fright, and the wetting had done. When Mr. Randolph came home the next day, he found his younger daughter very ill. And though the doctor spoke lightly of it as a "slight attack," the anxious father was very much alarmed. But Isabel began to improve after the first day or two, and by the end of the week she was able to leave her bed, and be carried to the couch in her own sitting-room. Everybody hoped that she would soon be down-stairs again now, but her progress towards convalescence seemed to be arrested at this point. The weather was cold and damp, and although always bright and cheerful, it seemed as though the springs of her life had been chilled and exhausted. Mr. Randolph soon grew anxious again, and talked of calling in a physician to see her, but Isabel begged him so earnestly to wait a little longer before doing this that at last he consented to wait for a week to see if there was any further improvement. Mabel could not understand why her cousin should have such an objection to the physician being sent for. And when they were by themselves she said, "Why are you so afraid of this physician, Isabel?" "I do not think I am afraid exactly, dear, but—but I want to get used to the thought of going home soon before papa knows it." "Going—home—soon," uttered Mabel with whitening lips. "Oh, Bella, Bella, what have I done?" she gasped, covering her face with her hands. "Don't—don't, Mabel," said the invalid, gently drawing down her hands. "But what do you mean? You cannot mean that—that—" and Mabel stopped.