Lotty began to utter incoherent self-reproaches, unintelligible to her little comforter; her voice had become the merest whisper; she seemed to have quite exhausted herself.

Just now there came a knock at the door, and Ida was relieved to see Mrs.Ledward, whose help she begged.

In a few minutes Lotty had come to herself again, and whispered that she wished to speak to the landlady alone.

The latter persuaded Ida to go downstairs for a while, and the child, whose tears had begun to flow, left the room, sobbing in anguish.
"Ain't you better then ?" asked the woman, with an apparent effort to speak in a sympathetic tone which did not come easily to her.
"I'm very bad," whispered the other, drawing her breath as if in pain.
"Ay, you've got a bad cold, that's what it is.

I'll make you some gruel presently, and put some rum in it.