'Oh, father!' exclaimed Effie.

'Nay, my child--' Mr Maurice began, but he saw that it was not mere pity
that produced so much agitation, and inquired hastily 'what is the
matter?' Poor Effie attempted to speak, but burst into tears.

'Oh, Effie!' exclaimed her brother, grasping her arm, 'you couldn't have
forgotten the medicine.' The poor child only sobbed the harder, and
Harry, turning to the table, pointed to the little packet, thus
explaining the mystery!

'And so for a selfish gratification you have endangered a
fellow-creature's life,' said Mr Maurice, sternly.

'Oh, father!' exclaimed Harry, 'she's so sorry! Don't cry, Effie, don't
cry!' he whispered, at the same time passing his arm around her neck,
'father didn't mean to be so severe, he is only frightened about little
James--I am very sorry I didn't go, for it was too bad to make you leave
the book.'

But all Harry's soothing words could not make Effie blind to her own
neglect, and when she saw her father go out with an anxious, troubled
face, and her mother looked so sorrowful without saying a single word to
her, she could not help going back in her thoughts to Mrs Town, Rosa
Lynmore, and even the miser, and thinking she was worse than any of
them.

Her brother Harry still clung around her neck, and kept whispering she
was not to blame, the fault was his, till Mrs Maurice called him away,