Grey also wisely refrained from
telling her suspicions. She was better acquainted with the treatment of
the sick than Mrs. Murray, and she watched over Charlotte with the
tenderness of a mother. One day Annie sat reading her Bible by the
bedside when Charlotte awoke from a long sleep, the first she had
enjoyed, and looking towards Annie said in a feeble voice,
"Oh, dear Annie, is that you?"
The little girl rose, and bending over her sick playmate, begged her in
a gentle voice to lie still and be quiet.
"I will, I will," answered Charlotte, clasping her hands feebly about
her friend's neck as she leaned towards her, "if you will only say you
forgive me. Oh, you know not what a wicked girl I am, and yet it seems
as if I had been telling everybody."
"Never mind now, dear," whispered Annie, "only keep still or you will
bring on your fever again."
"I believe I have been very ill, and have said many strange things,"
murmured Charlotte, "but I know you now and understand what I say. Do
you think you can forgive me, Annie?"
"Yes, dear Charlotte, and I love you better than ever now, so do not
talk any more." Annie kissed her tenderly as she spoke, and the sick
girl laid her head upon the pillow still holding Annie's hand in her
own.
From this time Charlotte rapidly improved, and one afternoon, when her
mother and Mrs. Grey and Annie were sitting with her, she told them the
whole truth about the lost money, and begged them to forgive her.
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