Just then he was asleep and Mary, sitting in the rocking-chair by the bed, was thinking, thinking, thinking.  If she could only stop thinking for a little while!  Uncle Zoeth, there on the bed, looked so calm and peaceful.  If only she might have rest and peace again!  If she might be allowed to forget!

The door opened gently and Mr. Chase appeared.  He beckoned to her to come out.  With a glance at the patient, she tiptoed from the room into the hall.

“What is it, Isaiah?” she asked.

Isaiah seemed to be excited about something.

“I’ve got a surprise for you, Mary-’Gusta,” he whispered.  “There’s somebody downstairs to see you.”

His manner was so important and mysterious that Mary was puzzled.

“Someone to see me?” she repeated.  “Who is it?”

Mr. Chase winked.

“It’s somebody you wan’t expectin’ to see, I bet you!” he declared.  “I know I wan’t.  When I opened the door and see him standin’ there I—­”

“Saw him?  Who?  Who is it, Isaiah?  Stop that ridiculous winking this instant.  Who is it?”

“It’s that young Crawford Smith feller from way out West, that’s who ’tis.  Ah, ha!  I told you you’d be surprised.”

She was surprised, there could be no doubt of that.  For a moment she stood perfectly still.  Had it not been that the hall was almost dark in the shadows of the late afternoon Isaiah would have noticed how pale she had become.  But it was evident that he did not notice it, for he chuckled.

“I told you you’d be some surprised,” he crowed.  “Well, ain’t you comin’ on down to see him?  Seems to me if I had a beau—­excuse me, a gentleman friend—­who come a-cruisin’ all the way from t’other side of creation to see me I wouldn’t keep him waitin’ very long.  Ho! ho!”

Mary did not answer at once.  When she did she was surprised to find that she was able to speak so calmly.

“I shall be down in a moment,” she said.  “Isaiah, will you please go in and stay with Uncle Zoeth until I come?”

Isaiah looked chagrined and disappointed.  Visitors from the far West were rare and especially rare was a young gentleman who Mr. Chase, with what Captain Shadrach termed his “lovesick imagination,” surmised was Mary-’Gusta’s beau.  He wished to see more of him.

“Aw, say, Mary-’Gusta,” he pleaded, “I’m awful busy.  I don’t see how I can set along of Zoeth—­Say, Mary’Gusta!”

But Mary had gone.  She was hurrying along the hall toward her own room.  So Isaiah, remembering that the doctor had said Mr. Hamilton must not be left alone, grumblingly obeyed orders and went in to sit beside him.