She awoke to find old Nancy bending over her.
"Don't be frightened, honey," she said; "but the old doctor is ridin' straight to the door. Don't you move or say a word, and I'll send him off as wise as he came."
Nancy had scarcely got downstairs and drawn the ladder after her, when the smart tap of a riding-whip was heard on the outer door.
Mrs. Kenyon trembled in anxious suspense.
Opening the outer door, old Nancy counterfeited great surprise at seeing Dr. Fox mounted on horseback, waiting impatiently to have his summons answered.
"Lor' bress us!" she exclaimed, holding up both hands, "what bring you on here so airly, Massa Fox?"
"Nancy, have you seen anything of Mrs. Kenyon and Cleopatra?" asked the doctor abruptly.
"How should I see them?" asked Nancy. "I haven't been to the 'sylum sence las' week."
"Run away! Good Lor'! What they gone and run away for?"
"Out of pure cussedness, I expect," returned the doctor in a tone of disgust. "Then you haven't seen them?--they haven't passed this way?"
"Not as I knows on. They wouldn't come to old Nancy. She couldn't help 'em."
"I was hoping you might have seen them," said Dr. Fox, disappointed. "I don't know where to look for them."
"How did they get away?" asked Nancy, fixing her round, bead-like eyes on the doctor, with an appearance of curiosity.
"I can't stop to talk," said Dr. Fox impatiently. "I must search for them, though I don't know where."
"I hope you'll find 'em, Massa Fox," said Nancy, rolling her eyes.
A sudden idea struck Dr. Fox. For a small sum he could enlist Nancy on his side, he thought.
"Look here, Nancy," he said, "these foolish woman may yet come this way. If they do, let me know in some way, so that I can catch them, and I'll give you--let me see--I'll give you five silver dollars."
"Will you really, Massa Fox?" exclaimed Nancy, in affected delight. "Oh, golly, how rich I'll be!"
"Of course you don't get it unless you earn it, Nancy."
"Oh, I'll work for it; I will, sure, Massa Fox."
"If they come here, manage to lock them up in your cabin, and then come to me."
"You may 'pend on me, Massa Doctor. Oh, yes, you may 'pend on me."
"That secures her co-operation," thought the deluded doctor. "Five dollars is a fortune to her."