Salis nodded his head sharply, and the girl went on: "I went down, sir, and when I came back she was standing in the middle of the room with a glass on the table, and something spilled--" Salis stopped to hear no more, but rushed into Leo's room to find her clinging to the foot of the bed, her eyes dilated, a look of horror in her face, and in the same glance he took in that which Dally had described--a glass upon the table, overturned, and some fluid staining the cover and slowly sinking down the side towards the floor. Volume 3, Chapter VI. THE DOCTOR IS ECCENTRIC. "Want me to attend Miss Leo Salis? Not I. Send to King's Hampton for old--" "But, please, sir." "Please, sir? Yes, you do please this sir. Why, you pretty little, apple-faced, sloe-eyed, cherry-cheeked piece of human fruit! Here, let's have a look at your little face!" "Oh, Dr North! For shame! You shouldn't." There was the sound of a smart kiss, and then Horace North stood gazing wildly at Dally as she made believe to be very much hurt in her dignity. "You shouldn't, sir, and Miss Leo all the time a-dying." "Miss Leo--very ill?" "Yes, sir; I told you so, and then you began talking nonsense and hauling me about. I feel quite ashamed." "But I cannot go to her, girl. It is impossible," cried North excitedly. "But master said I was to fetch you, sir. Oh, I wouldn't ha' thought it of you!" "I beg your pardon, Dally, I was not thinking. I--I--when was she taken bad?" "Sudden like--early this morning, sir. You will come, won't you? We're quite frightened." "Yes, I'll come," said North quickly. "By what strange irony of fate am I called upon again to attend on her?" he thought to himself, as he recalled her last illness, and the way in which she had declared her passion for him. "Idiot! fool!" he said. "What a mere child! And I a medical man, and let my weak vanity carry me away so that I could not see that all was delirium." "Did you speak, sir?" said Dally, who trotted beside him as he walked with rapid strides towards the Rectory. "No. Yes. How was it all?" "Well, sir, I hardly know; only that I left Miss Leo this morning for a minute, and when I came back she'd been drinking something out of a glass, and looked as if she'd poisoned herself." "Absurd! But this morning? How came you to be with her this morning? Why, it is only five now." "No, sir. We were up very early." "Early? Why, you look as if you had not been to bed. Here, Dally, what has been going on at the Rectory?" "Going on, sir? Oh, I couldn't tell you. And here's master, sir; ask him." In fact, Salis had just run down from Leo's room to see if the doctor was coming, and, on catching sight of him, came to hurry him on. "For Heaven's sake be quick!" he cried. "Leo is dying!" North hurried in with him, and upstairs, to find Leo lying upon the bed where her brother had placed her, pale, motionless, and with her eyes half closed.