CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH.

THE EJECTMENT

Mrs. Wentworth knew not where to go to procure money to pay the rent, and when she asked Mr. Elder to give her time to procure either the means of paying him, or to procure another place to stay, she did so only to avert the threatened ejectment for a brief period.  Nor did she know where to procure another shelter.  There was no one in the town that she knew from whom she could have obtained a room to rent, unless the money was paid in advance.

After Mr. Elder’s departure, she fell on her knees and prayed for help, but she did so only from habit, not with the belief that an Omnipotent arm would be stretched out to aid her.  There she knelt and prayed, until the thought of her sick child flashed across her brain, and rising, she stooped over and enquired how she felt.

“The same way,” answered Ella.  “I feel very hot, and my throat is quite parched.”

“You have got the fever, darling,” said Mrs. Wentworth.—­“Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Nothing,” replied Ella, “except,” she continued, “you could get me something sweet to take this bitter taste from my mouth.”

A pang shot through Mrs. Wentworth’s heart as she replied, “I cannot get anything just now.  You must wait until a little later in the day.”

She spoke sadly, for it was a deception that she was practicing upon her child, when she promised to gratify her wishes at a later hour.

“Never mind,” observed Ella.  “Do not trouble yourself, my dear mother, I do not want it very badly.”

The little girl defined the cause of her mother’s not acceding to her request at that moment, and she had no desire to cause her additional pain, by again asking for anything to moisten her parched lips, or remove the dry and bitter taste that the fever had caused.

Mrs. Wentworth had at last found out that Ella was sick.—­Not from any complaint of the child, for the little girl remained suffering in silence, and never hinted that she was unwell.—­But she had become so weak that one morning, on endeavoring to rise from the bed, she fell back and fainted from exhaustion, and on her mother’s chafing her forehead with water for the purpose of reviving her, discovered that Ella had a hot fever.  She was very much alarmed, and would have called a doctor, but knowing no medical man who would attend her child without remuneration, she was necessitated to content herself with what knowledge she had of sickness.  This had caused the money she had remaining in her possession to be quickly expended.