"Yes, he told me all about it last night, Kathie, and said but for
your rare presence of mind there might have been a bad fire. He
was pretty well cut up, however, when he found that you had hidden
yourself away and he had lost a patient," Miss Reynolds replied
with a laugh of amusement, which was merrily echoed by her guest.
"He doesn't seem to take much stock in Science, dear," she
presently resumed. "He was simply amazed when I told him you were
sleeping--I thought it best, as long as your work was done, to
relieve his anxiety--and declared that was impossible, unless you
had taken a powerful opiate."
"An opiate is something which mortal mind says produces repose;
well, I had taken a large dose of that 'Peace, be still,' which,
rightly administered, never fails to give the sufferer and the
weary rest," said Katherine, with luminous eyes.
"It was beautiful, Kathie, and, figuratively speaking, I 'put off
my shoes from off my feet,' feeling that the 'place whereon I
stood was, indeed, holy ground,'" reverently observed her
companion. "But, tell me, weren't you afraid when you saw the
flames?"
"Yes, for an instant, then I forgot everything but the 'secret
place' and 'the shadow.'"
"How much those words mean to me now! And you believe that every
statement of that ninety-first psalm can be proved--made
practical?' gravely inquired Miss Reynolds.
"Every one."
"Well, I think I am beginning to know it, too; though, as yet, it
is like 'seeing through a glass darkly,'" and a sweet seriousness
settled over the woman's face. "But," she went on, arousing
herself after a moment, "if you will tell me what to bring you I
will now go to your room for some clothes."
"Really, I am perfectly able to go for them myself," Katherine
began.
"No, indeed; you are going to remain just where you are, at least
for the morning," said her teacher, authoritatively. "At this hour
you would be sure to meet many of the students and become the
target for innumerable questions."
"Well, then, bring my linen suit and my 'Horace,' please. I have
to complete an essay on that accomplished and agreeable gentleman
'as a poet and a wit,' and I can spend the morning working upon
it."
Miss Reynolds slipped away on her errand, but she no sooner
reached the main hall than she was surrounded by a bevy of excited
maidens and besieged with a volley of inquiries regarding the
accident of the previous night.
Dorothy's nurse, Alice, had described the scene in the lecture
hall to one of the maids, when, of course, the news had spread
like wildfire, and it, together with Katherine's "heroism," was
the one topic of the day. Sadie had also heard it and was on her
way to see her chum when she, too, met the teacher in the hall.
She went back to her room with her, found the things Katherine had
designated, and then, as it was nearly time for the class lecture,
sent word that she would come to see her after study hours were
over.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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