“Then it really was a crazy girl you had to care for?” “Oh, yes. You see, this old gentleman had married years ago. I remember how he told us all about it. How his sweet young wife had been killed in a railroad accident and his little daughter went raving mad when her mother’s mangled form was brought home to her. And he seemed to be doing all he could to make the poor demented creature happy.” At this she laughed discordantly. It seemed so out of place to me, for to look at her and hear her voice was to be inspired with a sense of harmony. “I left my chair and went over to him. I crawled up into his lap and nestled my face against his. ‘You mustn’t dream that way, dear,’ said I. ‘It is bad for you, and besides you know I am always by your side.’ “One day when I had gone to the city to do some shopping the man who had engaged my husband came out to the cottage to have a talk with him. When I came home I found my husband all excitement. “‘What in the world is the matter with you?’ said I. ‘Mr. Leighton was here to-day and he wants me to leave you in direct charge of things here while I go out West and look after his interests in the oil fields.’ He had given him a week in which to decide whether or not he would go, but I could see that Dannie feared to refuse. I cried and clung to him, for I couldn’t bear to be separated from him; so he decided not to go. “When he went to the city to meet Mr. Leighton and give him his decision Mr. Leighton was quite haughty and seemed offended. He as good as told Dan that if he did not go he would have to find some one else to go to the cottage and take care of the invalid. “Dan came home thoroughly disheartened. I tried to cheer him and said maybe I could go with him, but he said no, he had asked Mr. Leighton about that and he had very decidedly said that it would not do. We talked it all over quietly and the question resolved itself into a matter of dollars and cents. If Dan refused to go we must give up the cottage, and that meant all our income. If he went he would be well paid in addition to the amount we received for the care of the cottage. So we decided that it was best for him to go and we would try and save enough money to start in business. “After Dannie left I took up the duties of nurse, for which I was not altogether unfitted, being patient and persevering. “Mr. Leighton’s daughter was as frail as a lily, and when I took her meals in to her I used to sit and watch her and wonder how she lived, for she ate almost nothing. “I concluded it must be the medicine which she took in the wine that gave her the little vitality she possessed. “She rarely noticed me and I am sure my coming and going was of no interest to her. She was not often violent these days; on the contrary, she was very tractable.