I fell into a heavy slumber just before daybreak, and when I awoke two or three hours after I found that the house had been put in order, just as usual, though no sound had disturbed me.  I glanced anxiously at the closed door.  That it was closed, and the white card still on the sill, proved to me that our charge had no more been disturbed than myself.  The thought struck me that the morning light would shine full upon the weak and weary eyelids of the sleeper; but upon going out into the fold to look at her casement, I discovered that Tardif had been before me and covered it with an old sail.  The room within was sufficiently darkened.

The morning was more than half gone before Mother Renouf opened the door and came out to us, her old face looking more haggard than ever, but her little eyes twinkling with satisfaction.  She gave me a patronizing nod, but she went up to Tardif, laid a hand on each of his broad shoulders, and looked him keenly in the face.

“All goes well, my friend,” she said, significantly.  “Your little mam’zelle does not think of going to the good God yet.”

I did not stay to watch how Tardif received this news, for I was impatient myself to see how she was going on.  Thank Heaven, the fever was gone, the delirium at an end.  The dark-gray eyes, opening languidly as my fingers touched her wrist, were calm and intelligent.  She was as weak as a kitten, but that did not trouble me much.  I was sure her natural health was good, and she would soon recover her lost strength.  I had to stoop down to hear what she was saying.

“Have I kept quite still, doctor?” she asked, faintly.

I must own that my eyes smarted, and my voice was not to be trusted.  I had never felt so overjoyed in my life as at that moment.  But what a singular wish to be obedient possessed this girl!  What a wonderful power of submissive self-control! she had cast aside authority and broken away from it, as she had done apparently, there must have been some great provocation before a nature like hers could venture to assert its own independence.

I had ample time for turning over this reflection, for Mother Renouf was worn out and needed rest, and Suzanne Tardif was of little use in the sick-room.  I scarcely left my patient all that day, for the rumor I had set afloat the day before was sufficient to make it a difficult task to procure another nurse.  The almost childish face grew visibly better before my eyes, and when night came I had to acknowledge somewhat reluctantly that as soon as a boat could leave the island it would be my bounden duty to return to Guernsey.

“I should like to see Tardif,” murmured the girl to me that night, after she had awakened from a second long and peaceful sleep.

I called him, and he came in barefoot, his broad, burly frame seeming to fill up all the little room.  She could not lift up her head, but her face was turned toward us, and she held out her small, wasted hand to him, smiling faintly.  He fell on his knees before he took it into his great, horny palm, and looked down upon it as he held it very carefully with, tears standing in his eyes.