Mrs. Prescott was greatly agitated when she received this note, and insisted that Celine should go to the cottage and bring Fanny away. She would have gone herself, but for the dread of meeting Mark again and being compelled to see Inez and possibly Tom. She could not go, but Celine must. Celine, who had been in the family since Helen was a young lady, understood her perfectly, and understood Fanny too. If the latter had made up her mind to stay with Inez, she would stay, and after a little she succeeded in making her mistress see that it was better to let her daughter alone. “But I shall not go to San Francisco and leave her behind. I am very comfortable here and shall stay till she joins me,” Mrs. Prescott said, adding after a moment’s thought, “I don’t know what the surroundings are at that cottage. Plain, of course, and not what Fanny is accustomed to. She will be worn out with the watching and the change. I think you’d better go and see to her.” This was a great concession and Fanny felt it as such when she received her mother’s letter offering Celine. “It is kind in you, mamma,” she wrote in reply, “but Celine is not necessary. There is a woman in the kitchen and I don’t know what I should do with a maid. I am waited on now by everybody as if I were a princess, and Inez couldn’t see strangers. Keep Celine for yourself, and don’t worry about me.” After the receipt of this note Mrs. Prescott settled down to wait Fanny’s pleasure and fret at the prolonged delay. Inez did not improve, except that her voice was a little stronger and Fanny could talk with her longer at a time and not tire her. One day after the stage had passed Tom brought a small package sent from San Francisco to Inez in care of her father. It was the watch which a lady had been commissioned to buy as a testimonial of the gratitude of the passengers who had been in the stage on the day of the hold up. Fanny had hoped to select it herself, but when she saw it she felt that she could not have chosen better. It was a little diamond jeweled stem winder, with Inez’s name on the inside lid and the date of the hold up. “Something for you from San Francisco,” Fanny said as she put the box on the bed before Inez, whose eyes grew very bright and questioning when she saw what it contained. “A watch! the thing I have always wanted. How did it come to me? I don’t understand,” she said. Fanny explained why it was sent and how glad the passengers were to send it. It was the first time any allusion had been made to the attempted robbery. Mr. Hilton had warned Fanny not to speak of it and she had been careful not to do so. Now she said as little as possible and was glad that Inez did not seem greatly excited.