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"I think I heard her step just now, ma'am"

"Very well; then you can just tell Susan to let her knoas Mr Laurie looking, Charlotte?"

"I haven't seen him, ma'am"

"Very well Then that is all, Charlotte You can just look in here after Miss Maggie and settle ht"

Then the door closed, and Mrs Baxter instantly began to doze off

She was one of those persons whosea little attack of feverishness, are occupied in conte a number of little vivid pictures of all kinds that present themselves to the mental vision; and she saw as usual a quantity of these, one, and of other details markedly unconnected with it She saw for exaie and Charlotte and es of a book allincoherence; and she was just beginning to lose herself in the depths of sleep, and to forget her fire or so of the book by her side, when a little sound ca laht across her bed, and the rest of the roo in the chiht at the tih with shadows fleeting across it, her son's face peering in at the door She thought she said so; but she was not sure afterwards At any rate, the face did not move; and it seemed to her that it bore an expression of such extraordinary nity that she would hardly have known it for her son's In a sudden panic she raised herself in bed, staring; and as the shadows caain Mrs Baxter drew a quick breath or two as she looked; but there was nothing Yet again she could have sworn that she heard the faint jar of the closing door

She reached out and put her hand on the bell-string that hung down over her bed Then she hesitated It was too ridiculous, she told herself Besides, Charlotte would have gone to her room

But the fear did not go iain that it was just one of those little waking visions that she kneell

She lay back on the pillow, thinking Why, they would have reached the fish by now No; she would tell Maggie when she cah tomorrow! Then, little by little, she dozed off once more