“Don’t you think you could do as well by yourself?” inquired the girl. “She’d be hopping mad if she should ever find it out.” “I do not dare to trust my own judgment, unaided; and, Harriet, I am afraid she is going to be very ill.” “Oh, dear, I hope not!” sighed Harriet. “Perhaps she will be better if we wait a day or two.” “I do not dare to wait, Harriet; I am very much troubled by her symptoms,” Salome returned gravely. “Then I guess you’d better work your plan—though how the bill will be paid is more than I can tell. No doctor would ever see the color of her money, if we should go contrary to her will,” said the maid gloomily. “Well, I would rather work until I could earn the money myself than run any risk or assume the responsibility,” Salome returned with decision. “Do you know of a skilful doctor who lives near here?” “Yes, there are the Doctors Minot—the old and the young man—just around the corner; they’re accounted first-class, but they charge awful!” “I cannot help that. I shall put the case in their hands, tell them just how we are situated, and trust the result with Providence,” and Salome’s brow cleared somewhat as she arrived at the conclusion. “Good luck go with you, Miss Howland; I’m sure you have a kind heart to be so interested for such a cross old woman.” Harriet would have resented it if any one else had called her mistress that; but just now she was very much troubled by her perverseness in refusing to see a doctor. “Don’t speak so, Harriet,” returned her companion gently. “She is one of the good Father’s children, the same as you or I, and perhaps she would have been very different if she had had a happier life. Now,” she added, “I am going to get my breakfast, after that to Dr. Minot’s. If Miss Leonard asks for me, tell her I have gone to the drug store for remedies—for I shall go there before I return.” She ran up to her room and prepared for the street, then went to break her fast—for she was faint and hungry, from her three hours of labor and anxiety in the sick-room—and after she had eaten went directly out. She found the physician’s office readily enough, and was kindly received by young Dr. Minot, who, by the way, was not so very young, being upward of forty, but was so styled because his father was still practising. Salome stated her case plainly, and the physician seemed to appreciate the situation. He knew something of Miss Leonard, he said, and was not at all surprised at her refusal to see a doctor. He saw at once that Salome was intelligent, and had made the most of her training in the hospital, and he thought there would be no difficulty in treating the case through her if she reported regularly and faithfully.