“Now, my dear, do you feel able to go back with us to the Blank House, where we are now again staying and waiting for Sylvanus to join us?”

“Oh, yes; I shall be glad to go, though all here are most tender and affectionate to me.  But I would like to see and thank the doctor for all his goodness.  How like the ideal of the beloved apostle he seems to me—­so mild, so tender, so reverend.”

“I think you cannot wait for that to-day, my dear.  The reverend doctor is engaged with the Dean of Olivet, who is going through the hospital.”

Rose Stillwater’s face blanched.

“Will they—­will they—­will they—­come into this room?”

“Of course not!  And if they should, you are up and in your chair.  And if you were not, they are a party of ministers of the gospel and medical doctors, and you would not mind if they should see you in bed.  You are a nervous child to be so easily alarmed.  It is the effect of the reaction from your stupor,” said Mr. Rockharrt.

“I will go with you, however, if I may,” said Rose Stillwater, touching the hand bell, that soon brought an attendant into the room.

“Will you ask Sister Susannah, please, to come to me?” said Mrs. Stillwater.

The attendant went out and was soon succeeded by the sister.

“My friends wish to take me away, and I feel quite able to go with them—­in a carriage.  Will you please find the doctor and ask him?” inquired Mrs. Stillwater.

The sister smiled assent and went out.

Soon the venerable man entered the room.

“I hope I find you better, my child,” he said, coming to the easy chair in which sat and reclined the patient.

“Very much better, thank you, sir; so much that I feel quite able to go out with my friends, if I may.”

“Certainly, my child, if you like.”

“I hope I have not detained you from your friends,” said Rose.

“No.  I left the dean in conversation with an English patient from his old parish.  It was an accidental meeting, but a most interesting one.”

“Does—­the dean—­contemplate a long stay in the city?” Rose forced herself to ask.

“Oh, no; he leaves to-night by one of the Sound steamers for Boston and Newport.  His English temperament feels the heat of the city even more than we do.”

Rose felt it in her heart to wish that the climate might “burn as an oven,” if it should drive the British dean away.

“But I must not leave my visitors longer.  So if you will excuse me, sir,” he said, turning to Mr. Rockharrt, “I will take leave of my patient and her friends here.”

He shook hands all around, receiving the warm thanks of the whole party.

When the venerable doctor left the room, Mr. Rockharrt withdrew to the corridor to give the nurse an opportunity to dress the convalescent for her journey.

He walked up and down the corridor for a few minutes, at the end of which Rose Stillwater came out dressed for her drive, and leaning on the arm of Cora Rothsay.