Maddy was not dead, but the paroxysm of restlessness had passed, and she lay now in a heavy sleep so nearly resembling death that those who watched by her waited expectantly to see the going out of her last breath. Never before had a carriage like that from Aikenside stopped at that humble cottage, but the neighbors thought it came merely to bring the doctor, whom they welcomed with a glad smile, making way for him to pass to Maddy’s bedside. Guy preferred waiting outside until such time as Grandpa Markham could speak with him, but Jessie went with the doctor into the sick-room, startling even the grandmother, and causing her to wonder who the richly-dressed child could be. “She is dying, doctor,” said one of the women; but the doctor shook his head, and holding in one hand his watch, he counted the faint pulse-beats, as with his eye he measured off the minutes. “There are too many here,” he said. “She needs the air you are breathing,” and in his authoritative way he cleared the crowded room of the mistaken friends who were unwittingly breathing up Maddy’s very life. The grandparents and Jessie he suffered to remain, and sitting down by Maddy he watched till the long sleep was ended. Silently and earnestly the aged couple prayed for their darling, asking that if possible she might be spared, and God heard their prayers, lifting, at last, the heavy lethargy from Maddy’s brain, and waking her to partial consciousness. It was Jessie who first caught the expression of the opening eyes, and darting forward, she exclaimed, “She’s waked up, Dr. Holbrook. She will live.” Wonderingly Maddy looked at her, and then, as a confused recollection of where they had met before crossed her mind, she smiled faintly, and said: “Where am I now? Have I never come home, and is this Dr. Holbrook’s office?” “No, no; it’s home, your home, and you are getting well,” Jessie cried, bending over the bewildered girl. “Dr. Holbrook has cursed you, and Guy is here, and I, and——” “Hush, you disturb her,” the doctor said, gently pushing Jessie away, and himself asking Maddy how she felt. She did not recognize him. She only had a vague idea that he might be _some_ doctor, but not Dr. Holbrook; not the one who had so puzzled and tortured her on a day which seemed now so far behind. From the white-haired man kneeling by the bedside there was a burst of thanksgiving for the life restored, and then Grandpa Markham tottered from the room, out into the open air, which had never fallen so refreshingly on his tried frame as it fell now, when he first knew that Maddy would live. He did not care for his homestead; that might go, and he still be happy with Maddy left. But He who had marked that aged disciple’s every sigh, had another good in store for him, ordering it so that both should come together, just as the two disappointments had come hand in hand.