124 THE COUSINS.

For more than a month Dr. Foster made fre-
quent visits to Mr. Nye’s, where Mr. and Mrs.
Lovett were watching tenderly and patiently by
the bed which they often feared would be Lucy’s
bed of death. At length the fever declined, the
pain abated; her mind no longer wandered in
delirium, and the physician pronounced her out
of danger. Weeks of languor and pain were yet
to pass ere Lucy could spend a whole day out of
bed ; but this was not the worst. When she was
taken out of bed, wrapped carefully up, and
placed on a low chair for the first time, Luey
found that her feet did not reach the floor, as
they had formerly done, from the same chair.
Lucy attributed this to her weakness, which made
it impossible for her to sit erect; but her father,
and mother, and Dr. Foster knew that her limbs
had been contracted by the severe rheumatism
from which she had so long suffered. The doctor
hoped, if there was no return of the rheumatism,
that.this contraction would be overcome, in one
so young as Lucy, in a few months; but this
was only a hope, and till it was overcome, Iucy
must walk on crutches, if she walked at all.