to bed--undressed, mind--and you might lie down by her. If you can't
manage her, call me. That's Leonard's door, and I shall be there all
night; but don't if you can help it. Can you do this, or must I get
Miss "What-d'ye-call-her" the elder one, if she can leave the Greens
in Randall's Alley?

Well was it that Mary's heart was stout as well as tender; and
instead of mentally magnifying the task, and diminishing her own
capabilities, she simply felt that she had received a command, and
merely asked that Ethel should be informed.

'I am going to send up to her.'

'And shall I give Averil anything to take?'

'Mutton-chops, if you can.'

'I meant sal-volatile, or anything to put her to sleep.'

'Nonsense! I hate healthy girls drugging themselves. You don't do
that at home, Mary!'

Mary showed her white teeth in a silent laugh at the improbability,
there being nothing Ethel more detested than what she rather rudely
called nervous quackeries. Her father gave her a kiss of grateful
approbation, and was gone.

There was a light on the table, and preparations for tea; and Mary
looked round the pretty room, where the ornamental paper, the flowery
chintz furniture, the shining brass of the bedstead, the frilled