Maddy’s case lost nothing by Mr. Green’s account, and by the time the doctor’s horse was ready, and he on his way to the cottage, he had arrived at the conclusion that of all the villainous men outside the walls of the State’s Prison he was the most villainous, and Guy Remington next. * * * * * What a cozy little chamber it was where Maddy lay,—just such a room as a girl like her might be supposed to occupy, and the young doctor felt like treading upon forbidden ground as he entered the room which told so plainly of girlish habits, from the fairy slippers hung on a peg, to the fanciful little work-box made of cones and acorns. Maddy was asleep, and sitting down beside her the doctor asked that the shawl which had been pinned before the window to exclude the light might be removed, so that he could see her, and thus judge better of her condition. They took the shawl away, and the sunlight came streaming in, disclosing to the doctor’s view the face never before seen distinctly, or thought much about, if seen. It was ghastly pale now, save where the hot blood seemed bursting through the cheeks, while the beautiful brown hair was brushed back from the brow where the veins were swollen and full. The lips were slightly apart, and the hot breath came in quick, panting gasps, while occasionally a faint moan escaped them, and once the doctor heard, or thought he heard, the sound of his own name. One little hand lay upon the bed-spread, but the doctor did not touch it. Ordinarily he would have grasped it as readily as if it had been a piece of marble, but the sight of Maddy, lying there so sick, and the fear that he had helped to bring her where she was, awoke to life a curious state of feeling with regard to her, making him almost as nervous as on the day when she appeared before him as candidate No. 1. “Feel her pulse, doctor; it is faster most than you can count,” Grandma Markham whispered; and thus entreated, the doctor took the hot, soft hand in his own, its touch sending through his frame a thrill such as the touch of no other hand had ever sent. But somehow the act reassured him. All fear of Maddy vanished, leaving behind only an intense desire to help, if possible, the young girl whose fingers seemed to cling round his own as he felt for and found the rapid pulse. “If she would waken,” he said, laying the hand softly down and placing his other upon her burning forehead.