“Oh, nurse—­”

“Hush!  Hear me out—­I can stay but a minute.  He is going to take you to Cuba.  His affairs are nearly arranged.  He means to start on Friday night—­this is Tuesday.  A schooner will be in waiting at the wharf, in the village yonder.  I am to go with you as attendant.  He is very much pleased with me, and I have consented.”

Mrs. Sharpe laughed softly.

“But, nurse—­”

“Yes, yes; be still.  We won’t go—­be sure of that.  He wanted to come up to see you, but I told him he had better not, if he wanted to have you quiet when the time came.  So he goes off again to-night without troubling you.”

Mollie clasped her hands in thankfulness.

“How can I thank you?  How good you are!”

“Thank me by going straight to bed and sleeping like a top.  Let the thought that it is likely to be your last night under this accursed roof be your lullaby.  And now I must go.”

Mollie held up her rosy lips—­tempting and sweet—­and the woman stooped and kissed her.

“You are my best friend,” Mollie said, simply.  “God bless you!”

The woman smiled.

“Nay, the kiss and the blessing, if meant for your best friend, should have been kept for Hugh Ingelow.  I but obey his orders.”

Mollie turned radiantly red.  Mrs. Susan Sharpe, with a significant smile at her own keenness, immediately quitted the room.

Dr. Oleander did not disturb Mollie.  He departed half an hour after Mrs. Sharpe quitted her for the night.  The account his mother and Sally gave of the nurse made him disposed to trust her.

“I will take her with me,” he thought, “since she is so trustworthy.  It would be too horribly dreary for Mollie without one companion of her own sex.”

So he offered liberal terms, and Mrs. Sharpe closed with his offer readily enough.

“I’d as lief go to Cuba as not,” she said, in her sedate way.  “One place is the same as another to me.  But it’s very soon to be ready.”

“Never mind,” replied the doctor.  “We’ll find dry-goods stores in Havana, I dare say, and, meantime, I’ll provide some ready-made things from New York.”

Dr. Oleander departed very well satisfied.  He would have liked very much to see Mollie, but his approach always threw her into such a fury, and he wanted her kept as quiet as possible until the hour of departure.

“I’ll have to resort to the vulgar alternative of chloroform, I dare say,” he thought.  “She’ll make a fight for it at the last.  I can quiet her, however.”

And so Dr. Oleander went back to New York without one suspicion that his new nurse was playing him false.

Within an hour after breakfast, the peddler presented himself next morning.  Again Mrs. Oleander and Sally were vividly interested, and again each purchased something.  Again Mrs. Sharpe said she wanted nothing, and again she knelt down to examine the contents of the pack.  The peddler pressed his goods, Mrs. Sharpe obdurately declined.  He persisted, Mrs. Sharpe grew angry.