I think I got the
first suspicion then, of what had really happened. 'Mary!' I bawled out
as loud as I could, 'Mary! can't you hear me?' She shook her head, and
stared up at me with the frightened, bewildered look again: then seemed
to get pettish and impatient all of a sudden--the first time I ever saw
her so--and hid her face from me on the pillow.
"Just then the doctor come in. 'Oh, sir!' says I, whispering to
him--just as if I hadn't found out a minute ago that she couldn't hear
me at the top of my voice--'I'm afraid there's something gone wrong
with her hearing--.' 'Have you only just now suspected that?' says he;
'I've been afraid of it for some days past, but I thought it best to
say nothing till I'd tried her; and she's hardly well enough yet, poor
child, to be worried with experiments on her ears.' 'She's much
better,' says I; 'indeed, she's much better to-day, sir! Oh, do try her
now, for it's so dreadful to be in doubt a moment longer than we can
help.'
"He went up to the bedside, and I followed him. She was lying with her
face hidden away from us on the pillow, just as it was when I left her.
The doctor says to me, 'Don't disturb her, don't let her look round, so
that she can see us--I'm going to call to her.
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