About midnight, with a doctor in attendance, he was carefully carried to
Mr. Gurney's in a state of delirium.
The next morning the startling news was brought into the Sherwood household
that Hugh McNeil was down with brain fever, and that the doctor had not
left the house since midnight.
Why did they all look at Dexie in such a horrified manner? Was she to
blame? Their looks implied as much. She fought against the implication
inwardly, but made no remark whatever as the news was being discussed.
But, as the day wore on, the unnatural stillness of the house seemed to
weigh her down with its oppressiveness, and she caught herself listening to
every sound with strained ears and every nerve on the alert.
She did not dare venture into the next door to make inquiries, not knowing
how much they might be blaming her for Hugh's sudden illness; and the added
trouble and anxiety his sickness necessarily caused, left no time for the
Gurney girls to run in with a report of his condition. Consequently, when
Lancy appeared about nine o'clock in the evening, Dexie's eyes asked the
question her lips had not power to form.
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