"Very well," said Mr. Snow. "Let me find her in it when I come up again this evening. And if there's a carpet on the floor, take it up. Carpets were never intended for bedrooms." He passed into one of the sitting-rooms with Lady Sarah when he descended. "What do you think of the case?" she eagerly asked. "There will be some difficulty with it," was the candid reply. "Lady Sarah, her hair must come off." "Her hair come off!" uttered Lady Sarah, aghast. "That it never shall! She has the loveliest hair! What is Ethel's hair, compared with hers?" "You heard the determination I expressed, Lady Sarah," he quietly said. "But Sarah Anne will never allow it to be done," she returned, shifting the ground of remonstrance from her own shoulders. "And to do it in opposition to her would be enough to kill her." "It will not be done in opposition to her," he answered. "She will be unconscious before it is attempted." Lady Sarah's heart sank. "You anticipate that she will be dangerously ill?" "In these cases there is always danger, Lady Sarah. But worse cases than--- as I believe--hers will be, have recovered from it." "If I lose her, I shall die myself!" she passionately uttered. "And, if she is to have it badly, she will die! Remember, Mr. Snow, how weak she has always been!" "We sometimes find that weak constitutions battle best with an epidemic," he replied. "Many a sound one has it struck down and taken off; many a sickly one has struggled through it, and been the stronger for it afterwards." "Everything shall be done as you wish," said Lady Sarah, speaking meekly in her great fear. "Very well. There is one caution I would earnestly impress upon you: that of keeping Ethel from the sick-room." "But there is no one to whom Sarah Anne is so accustomed, as a nurse," objected Lady Sarah. "Madam!" burst forth the doctor in his heat, "would you subject Ethel to the risk of taking the infection, in deference to Sarah Anne's selfishness, or to yours? Better lose all your house contains than lose Ethel! She is its greatest treasure." "I know how remarkably prejudiced you have always been in Ethel's favour!" resentfully spoke Lady Sarah. "If I disliked her as much as I like her, I should be equally solicitous to guard her from the danger of infection," said Mr. Snow. "If you choose to put Ethel out of consideration, you cannot put Thomas Godolphin. In justice to him, she must be taken care of." Lady Sarah opened her mouth to reply; but closed it again. Strange words had been hovering upon her lips: "If Thomas Godolphin were not blind, his choice would have fallen upon Sarah Anne; not upon Ethel." In her heart that was a sore topic of resentment: for she was quite alive to the advantages of a union with a Godolphin. Those words were suppressed; to give place to others.