It was then she did the strangest thing; instead of driving straight back for her trunk, when near the house she gave the cabman other directions, subsequently stopping him at one with a card in the window.
A woman answered the bell with surprising celerity, and a face first startled and then incensed at the sight of Mrs.Minchin.
"So you never came!" cried the woman, bitterly.
"I was prevented," Rachel replied coldly.

"Well ?" And the monosyllable was a whisper.
"He is still alive," said the woman at the door.
"Is that all ?" asked Rachel, a catch in her voice.
"It is all I'll say till the doctor has been." "But he has got through the night," sighed Rachel, thankfully.

"I could see the light in his room from hour to hour, even though I could not come.

Did you sit up with him all night long ?" "Every minute of the night," said the other, with undisguised severity in her fixed red eyes.

"I never left him, and I never closed a lid." "I am so sorry!" cried Rachel, too sorry even for renewed indignation at the cause.