summoned me to the bedside. The girl was lying just as I had seen her last, but there was now a faint suggestion of returning consciousness, and I turned with a quick and hopeful glance to the Doctor's face; but what I read there and saw reflected upon the grey face on the pillow told me that my hopefulness and sympathy would be of no use here. There was a slight movement, and I whispered gently

"Is there anything you want?"

She turned to the Doctor, with a burning look that seemed to read his inmost soul, but she did not speak. The Doctor had lived through these sad experiences so many times that he knew to what the human soul will turn in its last extremity.

He leaned over her and said with infinite tender

ness

"Would you like Mr. Clifford to come?"

She made a slight movement of dissent with her head, and for a moment nothing was said. Then she whispered faintly—

"I've been through a great deal, haven't I?" And when the Doctor had managed to articulate something, she said presently, with a painful pause between each sentence

"It's only you that knows how hard it's been-so that if anyone says any prayers over me, Doctor, I wouldn't like it to be anyone but you.-You'll remember how bad it was, won't you?" There was a pause while the stern old army surgeon bent down, and whispered something for her ear alone, and then she murmured presently

"I've not been very plucky, but I tried to bear it as well as I knew how-I'm not brave, Doctor, like soldiers-but if you'll hold my hand tight-it's all so dark-so dark, and so lonely-"

That was all. The darkness and despair were mercifully shortened, and a few minutes later the slight hand lay limp and motionless in the Doctor's grasp.

"And only to think," cried Nurse Clara, in a fresh paroxysm of grief, an hour afterwards, "that no one ever thought of clapping on a mustard leaf!"

"I don't know what we shall do," said the Matron, when she came in to relieve me the following morning. "I have just heard that two of our Nurses on the Private Staff have turned up ill, and applications are coming for them faster than ever. And there's that family over at Milchester-I've promised to send someone to them this evening, I'm sure I don't know how it's going to be done."

"When is Nurse Edith coming back?" I asked, for I knew the absence of the Head Nurse was to be merely temporary.

"She returns this morning, my dear, but I couldn't think of sending her. Of course, she is a most efficient nurse, but her manners!-well, you know how brusque she is. It would never do to think for a moment of putting her on to the Private Staff."

"Do you think I could manage?" I said after a moment's hesitation. "If she comes back to-day she can take her place again here, and perhaps you

might be able to manage like that. There won't be so much anxiety now," I added, "so very likely there would be no need for her to be on nightduty."

The Matron thoughtfully pondered the proposal for a few moments, and then she said

nervous.

"Do you really feel equal to it? It's not a very bad case, I understand, but the parents are naturally If you're quite sure? Oh, that settles the question at once. Go to bed now and sleep as long as you can. It will do quite well if you get off by the evening train.”

I went to bed at once, tired with my long night vigil, but, nevertheless, excited at the prospect of being at last raised to the position of a Nurse on the Private Staff. At five o'clock, therefore, I was dressed and anxious to start. for I found that one of the undernurses had packed up my travelling-bag whilst I was in bed, and there was nothing to keep me any longer at the Hospital.

"I think you'll find they're nice people," said the Matron, after she had given me all the final directions. "I know nothing of them, but their letters were business-like and nicely written, and the address is good."

I looked at the written direction she had given me, and read:

"MRS. ERNEST SHAW,

"THE CHASE,

“ MILCHESTER.”

"It sounds very grand," I observed; and forthwith I hopefully set out upon my journey.

An hour later I was standing on the front step of "The Chase "-a high, plain house in the middle of a row of high, plain houses that were all Granges, or Elms, or Sunny Denes; and I was pulling hard at a stiff bell-handle, which suddenly and unexpectedly yielded to my efforts. A clanging ring resounded somewhere in a dingy basement area, and presently a servant opened the door. I explained who I was, and she replied―

"Oh, you've come at last then. Why didn't you come down the area steps? It's the nurse, mum," she added, as a large and forbidding lady put her head out of a door and made a querulous protest over the draught.

CHAPTER XII

PRIVATE NURSING MY FIRST CASE.

“WELL, tell her to come in now she is here," said Mrs. Shaw; and she came out of the dining-room to interview me in the hall. "Good evening! Our doctor gave me the address of your Hospital. I suppose you are really quite capable of taking charge of our child?"

I explained who I was, adding that I had received no particulars of the patient or the nature of the complaint.

"Ah! It's a very mysterious thing all through," Mrs. Shaw observed darkly. "But the nursemaid is under notice, and I've spoken most strongly to my governess. As I said, I don't wish to wrongfully accuse anyone; but when she thinks of that poor child, what must her feelings be?"

"And the illness is

"You don't know?

of any use. Dear!

?" I asked.

Then I'm afraid you won't be How tiresome! Of course, I

thought you would have come prepared, or I shouldn't have gone to the expense. As it is-Well, well, I