Helen and Arthur | Page 9

thought she would be perfectly happy to be the possessor of such a
garment."
"I never will put it on again as long as I live," sobbed Helen. "Every
body laughs at it."
"Perhaps somebody else will have a word to say about it," said her
mother, in a grave, gentle voice. "When I have taken so much pains to
make it, and bind it with soft, bright ribbon, to please my little girl, it
seems to me that it is very ungrateful in her to make such a remark as
that."
"Oh, mother, don't," was all Helen could utter; and she made as strong
a counter resolve that she would wear the most hideous garment, and
brave the ridicule of the whole world, rather than expose herself to the
displeasure of a mother so kind and so indulgent.
"You had better put her back in bed," said Mr. Gleason; "children
acquire such bad habits by indulgence."
Helen trembled and clung close to her mother's bosom.
"I fear she may again rise in her sleep and fall down stairs," said the
more anxious mother.

"Turn the key on the outside, till we retire ourselves," observed the
father.
To be locked up alone in the darkness! Helen felt as if she had heard
her death-warrant, and pale even to blueness, she leaned against her
mother, incapable of articulating the prayer that trembled on her ashy
lips.
"Give her to me," said Miss Thusa, "I will take her up stairs and stay
with her till you come."
"Oh, no, there is no fire in the room, and you will be cold. Mr. Gleason,
the child is sick and faint. She has scarcely any pulse--and look, what a
blue shade round her mouth. Helen, my darling, do tell me what is the
matter with you."
"Her eyes do look very wild," said her father, catching the infection of
his wife's fears; "and her temples are hot and throbbing. I hope she is
not threatened with an inflammation of the brain."
"Oh! Mr. Gleason, pray don't suggest such a thought; I cannot bear it,"
cried Mrs. Gleason, with quivering accents. They had lost one lovely
child, the very counterpart of Helen, by that fearful disease, and she felt
as if the gleaming sword of the destroying angel were again waving
over her household.
"You had better send for the doctor," she continued; "just so suddenly
was our lost darling attacked."
Mr. Gleason started up and seized his hat, but Louis sprang to the door
first.
"Let me go, father--I can run the fastest."
And those who met the excited boy running through the street,
supposed it was a life-errand on which he was dispatched.
The doctor came--not the old family physician, whose age and

experience entitled him to the most implicit confidence--but a youthful
partner, to whom childhood was a mysterious and somewhat
unapproachable thing.
Of what fine, almost imperceptible links is the chain of deception
formed! Helen had no intention of acting the part of a dissembler when
she formed the desperate resolution of leaving her lonely chamber. She
expected to meet reproaches, perhaps punishment, but anything was
preferable to the horrors of her own imagination. But when she found
herself greeted as a sleep-walker, she had not the moral courage to
close, by an avowal of the truth, the door of escape a mother's gentle
hand had unconsciously opened. She did nut mean to dissemble
sickness, but when her mother pleaded sickness as a reason for not
sending her back to the lone, dark chamber, she yielded to the plea, and
really began to think herself very ill. Her head did throb and ache, and
her eyes burned, as if hot sand were sprinkled over the balls. She was
not afraid of the doctor's medicine, for the last time he had prescribed
for her, he had given her peppermint, dropped on white sugar, which
had a very pleasing and palatable taste. She loved the old doctor, with
his frosty hair and sunny smile, and lay quietly in her mother's arms,
quite resigned to her fate, surprising as it was. But when she beheld a
strange and youthful face bending over her, with a pair of penetrating,
dark eyes, that looked as if they could read the deepest secrets of the
heart, she shrank back in dismay, assured the mystery of her illness
would all be revealed. The next glance reassured her. She was sure he
would be kind, and not give her anything nauseous or dreadful. She
watched his cheek, as he leaned over her, to feel her pulse, wondering
what made such a beautiful color steal over it growing brighter and
brighter, till it looked as if the fire had been glowing upon it. She did
not know how very young he was,