Carol's sleep lasted two hours. Then he awoke, with something of his old bright smile. Mrs. Mandeville was still watching beside him.

"Auntie, I have been asleep."

"Yes, darling, I know. I have been watching you. It was a beautiful sleep. I thought as I sat beside you of the words, 'He giveth His beloved sleep.' I am sure you are better for it."

"Yes, Auntie, it was lovely, and my back doesn't hurt me quite so much. But I cannot move my legs yet."

"Do not try, dear."

"Did I dream it, Auntie, or were you reading Science and Health to me?"

"It was not a dream, dear. Mr. Higgs came and brought the book, and he has left it with me."

"I remember now, Auntie. Was it not nice of him to come? Has any message come yet from Cousin Alicia?"

"No, love; I cannot understand why the letters and telegrams are not forwarded to her."

"There is some reason, I know, Auntie. We shall understand by and by." She gave him some soda and milk, which was all the doctor would let him have.

"I should like to see Rosebud, Auntie. Couldn't she come for a little while?"

Mrs. Mandeville had already admitted one visitor against orders. Dare she act on her own responsibility a second time? She began to realize how much the doctor's fears of developments, which might or might not follow, were influencing her, though, happily, she was not able to influence Carol. He had no fear.

"I think it must be almost Rosebud's bedtime, dear; but she shall come for a few minutes."

After sending a message to the nursery for Rosebud, her eye fell on the medicine bottle. "Oh, Carol, I didn't give you your medicine this afternoon. It was just time for it when Mr. Higgs came, and afterwards you were asleep. It is time again for it now. I see it must be fresh medicine; it is a different color."

"Auntie, Mr. Higgs was my doctor, this afternoon. The medicine he brought sent me to sleep, and I do not ache quite so much. Must I take this drug medicine as well?"

Mrs. Mandeville had poured out a dose, and now held the glass in her hand.

"You are right, Carol. I can see a decided improvement. I will not ask you to drink this."

She emptied the contents of the glass away. A few minutes afterwards Rosebud's sweet voice was piping at the door:

"Me's 'tome to see Tarol."

Mrs. Mandeville lifted her up to kiss Carol, very carefully guarding her from touching him anywhere.

"You must only kiss Carol, darling." The little arms were about to twine themselves around him. "Me does 'ove 'ou, Tarol, so welly much."

The boy would have liked to hold her closely to him, but he could not raise an arm.

"It does make me so happy to see Rosebud again, Auntie. Perhaps to-morrow I shall be able to see all my cousins."

Mrs. Mandeville did not say, but she thought it would be many "to-morrows" before he would be strong enough to receive them all in his room.

"Now run back to the nursery, darling," she said to the wee girlie.

"Take a good-night kiss to Sylvia and Estelle, will you Rosebud?" Carol said. Then she had to be lifted up again to receive a kiss for "eberybody."

Mrs. Mandeville sat silent by the bedside for some time after Rosebud left the room. Then she said in a very low, soft voice, "Do you remember, Carol, coming to my room one day when I lay prostrate with one of my bad headaches?"

"Yes, Auntie; I remember quite well."

"I was very ungrateful, Carol, I would not let myself acknowledge it was your little prayer that took it away. Yet I knew it was, for I had never lost a headache like that before."

"Yes, Auntie, I knew Christian Science had helped you. But I thought you did not understand."

She kissed him very tenderly. "I am not ungrateful any longer, dear. I acknowledge the debt. Now I must not let you talk any more or Dr. Burton will insist upon having a trained nurse. He has suggested it several times."

"He couldn't keep you away from me, could he, Auntie?"

"I think he would find it a trifle difficult, dear."

"But I want you to go downstairs to dinner to-night, Auntie. Uncle will like to have you, and Nurse will stay with me."

"Perhaps I will go then, for an hour, dear."

So, later on, to everyone's surprise Mrs. Mandeville appeared at the dinner table, and was so bright they all knew, without asking, that Carol was improving, though he had not been pronounced out of danger.

Nurse was quietly making all the needful little preparations for the night when Carol asked her to place the clock where he could see it as he lay in bed.

"The nights seem so long when I cannot sleep, Nurse. I like to watch the fingers of the clock, then I know how long it will be before the light can peep through the curtains."

Nurse found a position where he could see it quite well, even though he could not raise his head from the pillows. Then, standing over him, she said: "Dearie, you are in pain. Couldn't I ease your position just a little?"

"No, Nurse, please don't touch me, the bruises seem so real. I ought to be able to deny them, and I cannot."

"And would it make them better to deny them, Master Carol?"

"Oh, yes, Nurse. You are thinking the bruises are very sore and painful, are you not?"

Yes, Nurse was decidedly dwelling in thought upon the pain the boy must be suffering from such a bruised condition.

"If you could think, Nurse, that there is no sensation in matter, that the pain is all in mind: in my mind and your mind, and Auntie's and the doctor's. You are all thinking how I must be suffering. If only someone would help me to deny it!"

"I wish I could, Master Carol."

But it was double Dutch to Nurse to try to understand that the pain was in mind, and not in the poor bruised body.

It was half-past nine when she moved the time-piece so that Carol could see it, and he at once began to count how many hours it would be till morning. At ten o'clock Mrs. Mandeville returned to the room, followed by Dr. Burton. Nurse held up a warning finger as they entered: the boy was asleep.

"This is splendid! How long has he slept?" the doctor asked.

"It was just after half-past nine, sir. He seemed in great pain, I thought there was no hope of sleep for him, and all at once he just dropped off without a word."

It was such a beautiful sleep, calm, peaceful, untroubled by fret or moan. Mrs. Mandeville and the doctor watched beside him an hour; then the doctor left, and Mrs. Mandeville was persuaded to go to her own room for a night's rest, leaving Nurse in charge. They did not know, nor could they have understood had they known, how, far away, a woman, 'clad in the whole armour of God,' was fighting for him: fighting error with 'the sword of the Spirit.'

Letters and telegrams had at last reached Cousin Alicia.