ed for the care of his patients, saw the Bells and told them of
his intended absence, and spent some time talking with the frail little
child who had become greatly attached to him. As he rose to go, he
turned to the couch once more. "What shall I send you from Boston,
little Miss Alice?" he said kindly, and the girl replied in true child
fashion, "Candy." He shook his head. "You know I don't approve of much
candy for small girls; but you shall have something better," he said,
"you may be sure I won't forget," and with another good-by he was gone.
He took the midnight train for Boston, and his patient's motor car was
waiting for him when he arrived there.

Perhaps it was the excitement of thinking what the "something better"
could be that kept Alice Bell awake that night; whatever it was, when
Silvia Holland saw her the next morning her heart sank. She had a
feeling that she was in some way responsible for the child also, and
that she was still Dr. Earl's assistant. She watched her while she
talked to Mrs. Bell, and suggested, in a tentative way, that Mrs. Bell
should go to some quiet country place for a month, but the woman shook
her head.

"I cannot leave the city, now," she said. "I have a great quantity of
sewing that must be done for Miss Lanier's wedding in September."

"Couldn't you take it along?" asked Silvia.

"No," she said quietly, but decidedly. "Some of the things she wants
fitted, and I have said I would be here any time she wanted to run into
town. Besides, there are other reasons why I cannot go away now." She
controlled herself with an effort. "I can never tell you, Miss Holland,
how thankful I am for the work you have brought my way. You can't
understand, no woman who has never been anxious to know how she was
going to get the rent can understand what a blessing it is to be
independent! You are doing great things for all women, Miss Holland, and
not forgetting individual women as some people would, but _do_ try to
make girls understand that they can never be free so long as they are
dependent on somebody else for their bread and butter."

Silvia flushed. "You're not fretting because of the paltry little sum I
advanced for your rent, are you?" she said. "I thought we were friends,
and such things should not be spoken of between friends."

The woman turned to her with a face in which gratitude and some great
sorrow were contending emotions, and caught her hands and held them
tight.

"No," she sa