He looked up to see Mrs. Mooney and Nellie in the doorway, smiling at him. Nellie was a different girl now. If Dr. Crossett had done nothing else in his busy life, what he had done for this child would have been a monument to his skill. Her arm was well, there was a soft color on her cheeks, and her face was bright with health and happiness.
"Come in!" He answered heartily, and as he looked at her he exclaimed gladly, "Why, Nellie, how well you are looking. Better every day!"
"She is that, Doctor. Better and happier," said Mrs. Mooney proudly. "She's just as good as any of 'em now."
"Please, Doctor," said Nellie timidly, as she held out to him a bunch of simple flowers, "will you please take these? I bought them with my first week's pay, part of it. I'm working now. Will you take them?"
"Thank you, Nellie." He took them from her with a smile. "They are a very satisfactory payment for anything I ever did for you."
"She thought you'd know what she was feeling, Doctor," interrupted Mrs. Mooney. "We can't ever pay, but we can't either of us ever forget."
"You owe far more to Dr. Crossett than you do to me. It was his treatment that gave us our start."
A shrill whistle from the old-fashioned speaking tube broke in upon her before she could express anymore of her gratitude of which she was so full, and as Maria went to the tube to answer they all turned to watch her.
Maria turned to them, greatly excited. "It's him. It's Dr. Crossett."
"Dr. Crossett!" Mrs. Mooney's face beamed with surprise and pleasure. "We can thank him, too, Nellie."
"You can run along out in the kitchen, both of you; that's what you can do," replied Maria firmly. "You can see him afterwards for a minute, but we don't want you here now."
"You must not go, Mrs. Mooney," said Dr. Barnhelm kindly; "the doctor will be glad to see Nellie."
"Yes, sir. She'll be showing him how strong she is. Why, it will be hard for him to believe it, sir. She can lift most as much as I can. He'll be glad to know that he was right. He said she'd be as good as any of 'em."
She followed Nellie to the kitchen, quite the happiest woman in the world; even there in that room she seemed to have left some trace of her happiness behind her, for as Maria looked at the Doctor's face she thought she saw a softer, less heart-broken look in his eyes, and she turned away hopefully to open the door for Dr. Crossett. Surely, she thought, there must be a chance of his doing something to help his friend, or would he, too, feel that she had done wrong in sending for him? That thought made her pause, afraid, but the thought went out of her mind at the first sight of his smiling, kindly face.