From the moment of his entrance to the sick room, old Joe assumed all charge to it, and with courtesy from it both Angelique and Margot.  
“But he is mine, my own precious uncle. Joe has no right to keep me out!” protested Margot, .
 
Angelique was wiser. “In his own way, among his own folks, that Indian good doctor. Leave him be. Yes. If my master can be save’, Joe Wills’ll save him. That’s as God plans; but if I hadn’t broke——”
 
“Angelique! Don’t you ever, ever let me hear that dreadful talk again! I can’t bear it. I don’t believe it. I won’t hear it. I will not. Do you suppose that our dear Lord is—will——”
 
She could not finish her sentence and [Pg 213]Angelique was frightened by the of the girl’s excitement. Was she, too, growing and ill? But Margot’s outburst had worked off some of her own uncomprehended terror, and she grew calm again. Though it had not been put into so many words, she knew from both Angelique’s and Joseph’s manner that they anticipated but one end to her guardian’s illness. She had never seen death, except among the birds and beasts of the forest, and even then it had been horrible to her; and that this should come into her own happy home was .
 
Then she reflected. Hugh Dutton’s example had been her instruction, and she had never seen him idle. At times when he seemed most so, sitting among his books, or gazing silently into the fire, his brain had been active over some problem that or interested him. “Never hasting, never wasting,” time, nor thought, nor any energy of life. That was his rule and she would make it hers.
 
[Pg 214]
 
“I can, at least, make things more comfortable out of doors. Angelique has let even Snowfoot suffer, sometimes, for want of the and care she’s always had. The , too, and the poor garden. I’m glad I’m strong enough to rake and hoe, even if I couldn’t lift uncle as Joe does.”
 
Her industry brought its own reward. Things outside the house took on a more natural aspect. The weeds were cleared away, and both vegetables and flowers lifted their heads more cheerfully. Snowfoot showed the benefit of the attention she received, and the forgotten family in the Hollow and gamboled in delight at the reappearance among them of their indulgent mistress. Margot herself grew of heart and more positive that, after all, things would end well.
 
“You see, Angelique , we might as well take that broken glass sign to mean good things as evil. That uncle will soon be up and around again; Pierre be at home; and the ‘specimen’ from the old cave prove [Pg 215]copper or something just as rich; and—everybody be as happy as a king.”
 
Angelique her disbelief, but was thankful for the other’s lighter mood.
 
“Well, then, if you’ve so much time and strength to spare, go yonder and clean up the room that Adrian left so untidy. Where he never should have been, had I my own way; but one never has that in this world; hey, no. Indeed, no. Ever’thin’ goes contrary, else I’d have cleared away all trace long sin’. Yes, indeed, yes.”
 
“Well, he is gone. There’s no need to abuse him, even if he did not have the politeness to say good-bye. Though, I suppose, it was my uncle who put a stop to that. What uncle has to do he does at once. There’s never any about uncle. But I wish—I wish—Angelique Ricord, do you know something? Do you know all the history of this family?”
 
“Why should I not, eh?” demanded the woman, indignantly. “Is it not my own [Pg 216]family, yes? What is Pierre but one son? I love him, oh! yes. But——”
 
“You adore him, bad and trying as he is. But there is something you must tell me. If you know it. Maybe you do not. I did not, till that awful morning when he was taken ill. But that very minute he told me what I had never dreamed. I was angry; for a moment I almost hated him because he had deceived me, though I knew that he had done it for the best and would tell me why when he could. So I’ve tried to trust him just the same and be patient. But—he may never be able—and I must know. Angelique, where is my father?”
 
The was so startled that she dropped the plate she was wiping and broke it. Yet even at that fresh of disaster she could not remove her gaze from the girl’s face nor the dismay of her own.
 
“He told—you—that—that——”
 
“That my father is still alive. He would, I think have told me more; all that there [Pg 217]may be yet to tell, if he had not so suddenly been stricken. Where is my father?”
 
 
“Oh! child, child! Don’t ask me. It is not for me——”
 
“If uncle cannot and you can, and there is no other person, Angelique—you must!”
 
“This much, then. It is in a far, far away city, or town, or place, he lives. I know not, I. This much I know. He is good, a ver’ good man. And he have enemies. Yes. They have done him much harm. Some day, in many years, maybe when you have grown a woman, old like me, he will come to Peace Island and forget. That is why we wait. That is why the master goes, once each summer, on the long, long trip. When Joseph comes, and the bad Pierre to stay. I, too, wait to see him though I never have. And when he comes, we must be ver’ tender, me and you, for people who have been done wrong to, they—they—— Pouf! ’Twas anger I was that the master could put the evil-come into that room, yes.”
 
[Pg 218]
 
“Angelique! Is that my father’s room? Is it? Is that why there are the very best things in it? And that wonderful picture? And the fresh suits of clothing? Is it?”
 
Angelique slowly nodded. She had been amazed to find that Margot knew thus much of a long history, and saw no harm in adding these few facts. The real secret, the heart of the matter—that was not yet. Meanwhile, let the child herself to the new ideas and so be prepared for what she must certainly learn, should the master’s illness be a fatal one.
 
“Oh! then, hear me. That room shall always now be mine to care for. I haven’t liked the housewifery, not at all. But if I have a father and I can do things for him—that alters everything. Oh! you can’t mean that it will be so long before he comes. You must have been jesting. If he knew uncle was ill he would come at once, wouldn’t he? He............