"
He knew she would; she was just as loving and unselfish as that, and
he wound his arms around her and drew her down close to him while he
whispered, "My poor, little Lucy; I don't deserve this from you."
She did not know what he meant, and she only answered him with
kisses, while her little hands moved caressingly across his forehead
just as they had done years ago in Rome, when she soothed the pain
away. There certainly was a mesmeric influence emanating from those
hands, and Arthur felt its power, growing very quiet and at last
falling away to sleep, while the soft passes went on, and Lucy held
her breath lest she would waken him.
"She was a famous nurse," the physician said when he came,
constituting her his coadjutor and making her tread wild with joy and
importance when he gave his patient's medicine into her hands.
"It was hardly proper for her niece to stay," Mrs. Hetherton
thought, but Lucy was one who could trample down proprieties, and it
was finally arranged that Fanny should stay with her. So, while Fanny
went to bed and slept, Lucy sat all night in the sick room with Mrs.
Brown, and when the next morning came she was looking very pale and
languid, but very beautiful withal.
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