Mrs. Hungerford slept now, and Mary Kingman kept vigil at the bedside of the sufferer. The human sympathy which the sad condition of poor Mary had kindled in the heart of the invalid was even more than “twice blessed,” for the kindness and devotion of the nurse were too real to be undervalued. No selfish thought, no calculating policy, entered into the mind of Mary. Julia had come to her when all others forsook her; this was her reflection; and she would gladly wear out her feeble frame in the service of such a friend. She did not see Eugene at all, except as she met him occasionally in the halls while in the discharge of her duties; and then she lingered only long enough to speak a word of Julia. The invalid continued to improve. She needed nothing now but patient, skilful nursing. Dr. Bilks still devoted his most earnest attention to the patient, though he spent less time in her presence. He not only prescribed costly wines, rare grapes, and other delicacies, but he procured them himself. The sweetest flowers that grew in the greenhouses near the great cities were every day placed in her chamber by his hand. There was nothing which ingenious thought could devise that was not done by him to promote her convalescence. And all this time Dick Birch could not even enter the room of the invalid. As she grew better his visits at Pine Hill became less frequent, and when she was able to leave her room they ceased altogether. The days of the sunny summer had come. Dr. Bilks directed that his patient should ride out, and he went with her every day. He still spoke of the dreaded relapse, and watched the effect of the gentle exercise he ordered. But no relapse came; and that it did not come was ascribed to the skill and watchful care of the devoted physician. There was none in the house who did not believe that Dr. Bilks was the savior of Julia Hungerford; that if he had been less skilful or less devoted, she could not then have been numbered among the living. Dr. Bilks therefore was not only an honored guest at Pine Hill, but he was regarded with a kind of reverence akin to worship.