She had tried a hundred times in the last months to say this or something like this, but she had never been able to gather enough courage, and now, no matter what came of it, she was going to speak. He tried to stop her, but the great love she had in her heart was stronger than her fear of him, and she went on. "Sometimes, Doctor, I think, because all day long, every day, I've been thinkin', and sometimes it seems to me that just those last few weeks, before she went away, that she wasn't well some way, that somehow she couldn't help doin' what she did. Maybe there was something that you and me don't understand, that was too strong for her to fight. Can't you look at it like that? Can't you get to think of her like you would of a child that didn't know no better?" For a moment the doctor looked up into her flushed, earnest face, then slowly dropped his head on his arms, and leaning forward on the table he began to sob like a child. "Oh, Doctor! Don't! Don't, Doctor!" She tried to soothe him, as gently as a mother might have done, and with much the same feeling in her heart. She was not afraid of him now, but she longed to comfort him. "Please, Doctor! Don't! I won't say any more. Only don't do that. Won't you try not to be so unhappy?" As she spoke the bell rang, and she straightened up. "Hush! There's someone here. Are you all right, Doctor? Shall I let 'em in?" "Yes, Maria." He recovered himself quickly, for he was a proud man, and as Maria went slowly to the door he wiped his eyes and straightened himself in his chair. "Can we be coming in?" He looked up to see Mrs. Mooney and Nellie in the doorway, smiling at him. Nellie was a different girl now. If Dr. Crossett had done nothing else in his busy life, what he had done for this child would have been a monument to his skill. Her arm was well, there was a soft color on her cheeks, and her face was bright with health and happiness. "Come in!" He answered heartily, and as he looked at her he exclaimed gladly, "Why, Nellie, how well you are looking. Better every day!" "She is that, Doctor. Better and happier," said Mrs. Mooney proudly. "She's just as good as any of 'em now." "Please, Doctor," said Nellie timidly, as she held out to him a bunch of simple flowers, "will you please take these? I bought them with my first week's pay, part of it. I'm working now. Will you take them?" "Thank you, Nellie." He took them from her with a smile. "They are a very satisfactory payment for anything I ever did for you." "She thought you'd know what she was feeling, Doctor," interrupted Mrs. Mooney. "We can't ever pay, but we can't either of us ever forget." "You owe far more to Dr. Crossett than you do to me. It was his treatment that gave us our start." A shrill whistle from the old-fashioned speaking tube broke in upon her before she could express anymore of her gratitude of which she was so full, and as Maria went to the tube to answer they all turned to watch her.