Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com There was great alarm at first, until it was found that she
was in a swoon, and that the swoon was yielding to the usu-
al means of recovery; when the Doctor, who had lifted her
head upon his knee, put her curls aside with his hand, and
said, looking around:
‘Poor Annie! She’s so faithful and tender-hearted! It’s the
parting from her old playfellow and friend - her favourite
cousin - that has done this. Ah! It’s a pity! I am very sorry!’
When she opened her eyes, and saw where she was, and
that we were all standing about her, she arose with as-
sistance: turning her head, as she did so, to lay it on the
Doctor’s shoulder - or to hide it, I don’t know which. We
went into the drawing-room, to leave her with the Doctor
and her mother; but she said, it seemed, that she was better
than she had been since morning, and that she would rather
be brought among us; so they brought her in, looking very
white and weak, I thought, and sat her on a sofa.
‘Annie, my dear,’ said her mother, doing something to
her dress. ‘See here! You have lost a bow. Will anybody be so
good as find a ribbon; a cherry-coloured ribbon?’
It was the one she had worn at her bosom. We all looked
for it; I myself looked everywhere, I am certain - but nobody
could find it.
‘Do you recollect where you had it last, Annie?’ said her
mother.
I wondered how I could have thought she looked white,
or anything but burning red, when she answered that she
had had it safe, a little while ago, she thought, but it was not
worth looking for.