"I'm afraid we're too early, Miss," began Mrs. Mooney, in that tired, colorless voice that tells its own story of hardship and hopelessness, "but Nellie couldn't rest at all last night. We don't want to be bothering your father, though; he's been kind enough already." "He is quite ready for you, I'm sure," replied Lola, "but I will go to him; he might need me to help him with his things." As she left the room Nellie looked after her wistfully. "There's nobody I ever see like her," she said, in that tone one often hears in children's voices when they speak of those whom they have selected for that strange form of hero worship so common to the young. "When he hurts me, and I have to cry, I'll see her with the tears in her eyes." "I know," replied her mother gratefully; "it was she that first brought the Doctor to see you, and he'll cure you yet, and if they do that----" She stopped for a moment and clutched at her breast, as though to tear away the dread and anguish that was there. "It's all right, Nellie--it's all right, I'm telling you! You're going to be as good as any of 'em yet!" [Illustration: LOLA VISITS THE MOONEY FAMILY.] CHAPTER II A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL Doctor Martin Barnhelm had for over twenty years practised medicine in New York. Aside from the fact that he was thoroughly qualified for his profession, he had a gentle, kindly manner that made him popular with all his patients. His might have been an unusual success, but of late years he had devoted more and more of his time to research work. He had a growing reputation in the medical world, as an expert in the development of electro-medical apparatus, and unknown to anyone he was devoting all his energies to the realization of a theory, which to his mind at least promised to be the most important medical discovery since the introduction of antiseptic surgery. In the front room of his apartment he carried on his experiments, and so complete was his devotion to the object of his ambition that he scarcely allowed himself time to earn, by his profession, even the modest sum necessary for the household expenses. Lola saw that his heart was wholly set upon this one idea, and without in the least understanding its purpose, aided him by rigid economy, and had even, against his rather faint protest, begun to add to the family income by teaching in a settlement school. Although the Doctor had so jealously guarded his time that he had lost most of his wealthy patients, he had never been able to deny his professional aid to those unfortunates from whom no other fee than gratitude could be expected. Nellie Mooney was one of these. She had inherited from a vicious father the tainted blood and the weakened constitution, which, helped on by the bad air and insufficient nourishment of the poor of the crowded tenement district, had resulted in a tubercular disease of the bone of her right arm.