"My poor boy!" said Mrs. Franklin, going to the window. "Tramping about the country such a day as this without a home! I wonder if he has any money, Cynthia?"
Neither of them remembered that Neal had wilfully deserted his home, and that it was entirely his own fault if he had no money in his pockets.
"Cynthia," said Mrs. Franklin, turning abruptly and facing her daughter, "I want you to understand that I don't think Neal took that money. I cannot believe it. I am sure he got it in some other way. Why do you look so odd, Cynthia?"
"I believe you know something about it. Tell me!"
"Could you have helped him in any way? Where would you get it? Why, of course! How stupid we have all been! You had Aunt Betsey's present; you never spent it, you would not buy the watch. Cynthia, you cannot deny it; I have guessed it!"
The next moment Mrs. Franklin was enveloped in a vigorous hug.
"You dear darling, I'm _so_ thankful you have! He wouldn't let me tell, but I said this morning I wouldn't deny it if you happened to guess."
"Oh, Cynthia, though I said I didn't believe the other, this has taken a thousand-pound weight from my heart!"
They were interrupted by the entrance of the nurse, who came to say that her patient was growing more uneasy, and she thought some one had better come to her. At the same moment Mr. Franklin arrived, so Cynthia went alone to her sister.
She found her perfectly conscious, with large, wide-open eyes, watching for her. Edith's head was bound up, and the pretty hands, of which she had always been somewhat vain, moved restlessly. Cynthia took one of them in her warm, firm grasp, and leaned over the bed.
"Dearest, you wanted me," she said, in a low voice; "I am going to stay with you now."
But Edith was not satisfied. She tried to say something, but in so faint a voice that Cynthia could not hear.
[Illustration: "I CAN'T HEAR YOU," SHE SAID. "DON'T TRY TO SPEAK."]
"I can't hear you," she said, in distress. "Don't try to speak; it will tire you."
But still Edith persisted. Cynthia put her ear close to her sister.
No, that was not it. Cynthia thought a moment.
"Oh. I know!" she exclaimed. "You are sorry about the drive, Edith; is that it? You want mamma to forgive you?"