“Then,” said she, “they sent for the doctor, who did all manner of cruel things, until you came to life and went to sleep.” “And Mildred wasn’t here at all,” said Lawrence sadly. “Why did she stay with Oliver? What ails him?” “He had the nose-bleed, I believe,” answered Lilian. “You know he’s weak, and getting you out of the water made him sick, I suppose. Mildred thinks more of Oliver than of you, I guess.” “The deuce she does,” muttered the Judge, and he was about going in to charge Lilian with her duplicity when Mildred herself appeared, and he resumed his seat to hear what next would occur. “I am sorry I had to leave you,” she said, going up to Lawrence, “but poor Oliver needed the care of some one besides old Hepsy, and I dare say you have found a competent nurse in Lilian.” “Yes, Fairy has been very kind,” said Lawrence, taking the young girl’s hand, “I should have been sadly off without her. But what of Oliver?” Mildred did not then know how severe a shock Oliver had received, and she replied that, “he was very weak, but would, she hoped, be better soon.” “I shall go down to-morrow and thank him for saving my life,” was Lawrence’s next remark, while Mildred asked some trivial question concerning himself. “Why in thunder don’t she tell him all about it?” growled the Judge, beginning to grow impatient. “Why don’t she tell him how she worked like an ox, while t’other one sat on the floor and snivelled?” Then as he heard Mildred say that she must go and see which of the negroes would stay with him that night, he continued his mutterings: “Mildred’s a fool,—Thornton’s a fool,—and that Lilian is a consummate fool; but I’ll fix ’em;” and striding into the room, just as Mildred was leaving it, he said, “Gipsy, come back. You needn’t go after a nigger. I’ll stay with Lawrence myself.” It was in vain that both Lawrence and Mildred remonstrated against it. The Judge was in earnest. “Unless, indeed, _you_ want to watch,” and he turned to Lilian: “You are such a capital nurse,—not a bit afraid of the dark, nor sick folks, you know,” and he chucked her under the chin, while she began to stammer out: “Oh, I carn’t! I carn’t! it’s too hard,—too hard.” “Of course, it’s too hard,” said Lawrence, amazed at the Judge’s proposition. “Lilian is too delicate for that; she ought to be in bed this moment, poor child. She’s been sadly tried to-day,” and he looked pityingly at Lilian, who, feeling that in some way wholly unknown to herself, she had been terribly aggrieved, began to cry, and left the room. “Look out that there don’t something catch you in the hall,” the Judge called after her, shrugging his shoulders, and thinking that not many hours would elapse ere he pretty thoroughly undeceived Lawrence Thornton.