“Of course,” assented Dicky, and led the way to the telephone.

I did not hear what the physician said at first, but as he closed the conversation a note in his voice arrested my attention.

“You are sure you are not too tired?  Very well.  I will see you here tonight.  Good-by.”

Woman-like, I thought I detected a romance.  The tenderness in his voice could mean but one thing, that he admired, perhaps loved the woman he had praised so extravagantly.

After he went away, promising to return in the evening, I busied myself with the services to my mother-in-law he had asked me to perform, and then sat down to wait for Miss Sonnot.  Dicky wandered in and out like a restless ghost until I wanted to shriek from very nervousness.

But the first glimpse of the slender girl who came quietly into the room and announced herself as Miss Sonnot steadied me.  She was a “slip of a thing,” as my mother would have dubbed her, with great, wistful brown eyes that illumined her delicate face.  But there was an air of efficiency about her every movement that made you confident she would succeed in anything she undertook.

I have always been such a difficult, reserved sort of woman that I have very few friends.  I did not understand the impulse that made me resolve to win this girl’s friendship if I could.

One thing I knew.  The grave, sweet face, the steady eyes told me.  One could lay a loved one’s life in those slim, capable hands and rest assured that as far as human aid could go it would be safe.

“Keep her quiet.  Above all things, do not let her get excited over anything.”

Miss Sonnot was giving me my parting instructions as to the care of my sick mother-in-law before taking the sleep which she so sorely needed, on the day that Dr. Pettit declared my mother-in-law had passed the danger point.  Thanks to her ministrations I had been able to sleep dreamlessly for hours.  Now refreshed and ready for anything, I had prepared my room for her, and had accompanied her to it that I might see her really resting.

She was so tired that her eyes closed even as she gave me the admonition.  I drew the covers closer about her, raised the window a trifle, drew down the shades, and left her.

As I closed the door softly behind me, I heard the querulous voice of the invalid: 

“Margaret!  Margaret!  Where are you?”

As I bent over my husband’s mother she smiled up at me.  Her illness had done more to bridge the chasm, between us than years of companionship could have done.  One cannot cherish bitterness toward an old woman helplessly ill and dependent upon one.  And I think in her own peculiar way she realized that I was giving her all I had of strength and good will.

“What can I do for you?” I asked, returning her smile.

“I want something to eat, and after that I want to have a talk with Richard.  Where is he?”