"I fear you daughter is more seriously indisposed than you think,"
she said anxiously to Mrs. Mayhew.
"I'm going to take Ida in hand," replied the matter-of-fact lady.
"She IS ill--far more so than she'll admit. I'm going to have the
doctor at once and put her under a course of treatment."
"Curse it all!" thought Van Berg, "that is just the trouble. She
has been under a course of treatment that would make any woman ill,
save her mother, and I'm inclined to think that I was the veriest
quack of them all in my treatment."
"I wish she would let me call upon her this afternoon," said Miss
Burton, gently.
"Oh, I think she'll be glad to see you!--at least she ought to be;"
but it was too evident that Mrs. Mayhew was at last beginning to
grow very anxious, and she made a simpler meal than usual. Stanton
in his solicitude, hastened through dinner, and started at once
for the physician who usually attended the guests of the house.
Ida, in the meantime, had forced herself to eat a little of the food
sent to her, and then informing the woman who had charge of their
floor that she was going out for a walk, stole down and out unperceived,
and soon gained a secluded path that led into an extensive tract
of woodland.
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