A Sham Princess by Eglanton Thorne

BERT was crouching on the bed close to his sister when the doctor came into the room. Dead or alive, Prin was Prin, and Bert felt no awe of her. He was bending over her, and his tears were dropping on her forehead. The doctor took hold of him forcibly and lifted him from the bed.

"Come, this won't do," he said. "You must not give way. Just let me have a look at her. It's all over, they tell me."

Bert made no reply, having no voice at his command. Dr. Hurst touched Prin's still form, straightened it, and laid his hand on her heart. Then he uttered a startled cry.

"She lives yet! I can feel her heart beat. Quick, boy, give me the brandy, quick!"

There was but a small quantity at hand. The doctor succeeded in pouring it all down his patient's throat; then he called to Bert for water. The boy flew to fetch it, and to his joy met the nurse at the door. She had come in time, not to lay out the dead, but to help to revive the living.

Doctor and nurse worked together in breathless excitement for some minutes. Their efforts were rewarded. Hope grew as they worked, till, after about a quarter of an hour, the girl drew a deep, natural breath, and opened her eyes.

"She will live," whispered the doctor; and Bert caught the words, and ran out of the room, that he might sob freely.

The nurse sat up with the patient that night, for her weakness was extreme, and she might yet slip away if she were not assiduously cared for. But the hours of the night brought no relapse, and the morning found Prin better.

"She'll do now," said Dr. Hurst, rubbing his hands with satisfaction. "It's the narrowest escape I ever saw. If I had come in a minute later, it might have been too late.

"Don't you be in such a hurry to jump to conclusions another time, young man," he added, as he turned to Bert; "but there! We'll hope there'll be no more times such as this."

Bert devoutly hoped so too. Yet thankful as he was that Prin was restored to life, there was a burden on the boy's mind as he thought of the future.

"Will the police want her now, sir? " he asked anxiously of the doctor.

"Ah, the police! " said Dr. Hurst, looking grave. "That is a bad business. So, she was only a sham princess after all!"

"Of course she was never a real one," said Bert.

"Ah! But she might have been! " said the doctor. "Tis only noble to be good. Every good, true woman is of royal lineage, no matter who her parents were."

"And Prin was not good and true," said Bert sadly; "I will never call her Princess again."

"Don't say that," said Dr. Hurst; "she may be worthy of the title yet. She has life before her, and may live to be thankful for the fall which taught her the misery of wrong-doing. Do you know, lad, there is a ladder by which men and women may climb upwards, and the rungs of that ladder are formed of the mistakes and sins of the past? It is painful climbing for most of us; but she is young, and it will be easier for her."

"Oh, I hope so," said Bert, only half-grasping the meaning of the doctor's words.

Just then there was a rap on the door. Bert ran to open it. A gentleman stood in the narrow space at the foot of the steps. His bearing was such that he looked strangely out of place in that dingy spot, and catching sight of him, the doctor hastened forward.

"Is there not a girl lying dead here whose name was Sinclair? " he asked, with some hesitation of manner.