Her father rose angrily.  “She shall be punished,” he declared.  And began to walk to and fro.  “I won’t let this pass.”

Gwendolyn’s look followed him tenderly.  “Well, you see, she didn’t know about—­about nursery work,” she explained. “’Cause before she came here she was just a cook.”

“Oh, my baby daughter!” murmured Gwendolyn’s mother, brokenly.  She bent forward until her face was hidden against the silken cover of the bed.  “Mother didn’t know you were being neglected!  She thought she was giving you the best of care, dear!”

“Two spoonfuls!” said the Doctor, grimly.  “That explains everything!”

“Oh, but I didn’t want to take the last one,” protested Gwendolyn, hastily, “—­though it tasted good.  She made me.  She said if I didn’t—­”

“So!” exclaimed the Doctor, interrupting.  “She frightened the poor little helpless thing in order to get obedience!”

“Gwendolyn!” whispered her mother.  “She frightened you?”

The gray eyes smiled wisely.  “It doesn’t matter now,” she said, a hint of triumph in her voice.  “I’ve found out that P’licemen are nice.  And so are—­are Doctors”—­she dimpled and nodded.  “And all the bears in the world that are outside of cages are just Puffy Bears grown up.”  Then uncertainly, “But I didn’t find out about—­the other.”

“What other?” asked her father, pausing in his walk.

The gray eyes were diamond-bright now.  “Though I don’t really believe it,” she hastened to add.  “But—­do wicked men keep watch of this house.”

“Wicked men?” Her mother suddenly straightened.

“Kidnapers.”

This innocent statement had an unexpected effect.  Again her father began to stride up and down angrily, while her mother, head drooping once more, began to weep.

“Oh, mother didn’t know!” she sobbed.  “Mother didn’t guess what terrible things were happening!  Oh, forgive her!  Forgive her!”

The Doctor came to her side.  “Too much excitement for the patient,” he reminded her.  “Don’t you think you’d better go and lie down for a while, and have a little rest?”

A startled look.  And Gwendolyn put out a staying hand to her mother.  Then—­“Moth-er is tired,” she assented.  “She’s tireder than I am.  ’Cause it was hard work going round and round Robin Hood’s Barn.”

The Doctor hunted a small wrist and felt the pulse in it.  “That’s all right,” he said to her mother in an undertone.  “Everything’s still pretty real to her, you see.  But her pulse is normal,” He laid cool fingers across her forehead.  “Temperature’s almost normal too.”

Gwendolyn felt that she had not made herself altogether clear.  She hastened to explain.  “I mean,” she said, “when moth-er was carrying that society bee in her bonnet.”

Confusion showed in the Doctor’s quick glance from parent to parent.  Then, “I think I’ll just drop down into the pantry,” he said hastily, “and see how that young nurse from over yonder is getting along.”  He jerked a thumb in the direction of the side window as he went out.