rned to the house and pointed up to the two open windows of the
study, in and out of which the warm breeze puffed the limp white curtains.

"He's there, poor chap! He was able to get that far for the first time
yesterday, leaning on me and Clytie."

"And to think I never knew he was sick until we came from town last night.
I'd surely have left the old school and come before if I'd heard. I
wouldn't have cared _what_ Aunt Bell said."

"Eight weeks down, and you know we found he'd been sick long before he
found it out himself--walking typhoid, they called it. He came home from
college with me Easter week, and Dr. Merritt put him to bed the moment he
clapped eyes on him. Said it was walking typhoid, and that he must have
been worrying greatly about something, because his nervous system was all
run down."

"And he was very ill?"

"Doctor Merritt says he went as far as a man can go and get back at all."

"How dreadful--poor Bernal! Oh, if he _had_ died!"

"Out of his head for three weeks at a time--raving fearfully. And you
know, he's quite like an infant now--says the simplest things. He laughs
at it himself. He says he's not sure if he knows how to read and write."

"Poor, dear Bernal!"

With some sudden arousing he studied her face swiftly as she spoke, then
continued:

"Yes, Bernal's really an awfully good chap at bottom." He turned again to
look up at the study windows. "You know, I intend to stand by that fellow
always--no matter _what_ he does! Of course, I shall not let his being my
brother blind me to his faults--doubtless we _all_ have faults; but I tell
you, Nancy, a good heart atones for many things in a man's make-up."

She seemed to be waiting, slightly puzzled, but he broke off--"Now I must
hurry to mail these letters It's good to be home for another summer. You
really _do_ please me, Nance!"

She thought, as he moved off, that Allan was handsome--more than handsome,
indeed. He left an immediate conviction of his superb vitality of body and
mind, the incarnation of a spirit created to prevail. Featured in almost
faultless outline, of a character unconsciously, unaffectedly proclaiming
its superior gravity among human masses, he was a planet destined to have
many satellites and be satellite to none; an _ego_ of genuine lordliness;
a presence at once masterly and decorative.

And yet she was conscious of a note--not positively of discord, but one
still exciting a counter-stream of reflection. She h