sure he could leave the
office.

"Oh, come now, Bruce, that's put on," said the doctor. "No man, whatever
his profession, unless he be a farmer, can convince me of a pressure of
business at this season. Banish the delusive idea and make yourself
agreeable for once."

Mr. Bruce raised his head, showing at the same time a flash of his white
teeth and his black eyes. "For once?" he repeated. "Making myself
agreeable, or making a grotesque caricature of myself in my struggles to
be agreeable, has been the business of my life."

"Oh, Mr. Bruce!" laughed Ruth. "Everybody knows you are delightful, but
the idea of your making an effort in that direction is too absurd."

"If I had made that speech," thought Miss Custer, "Mrs. Tascher would
have looked a severe criticism."

Mrs. Tascher, as it was, looked across at Ruth and said laughingly,
"That hits him hard, my dear, but he ought not to wince."

Mr. Bruce _had_ colored slightly and broken up the gravity of his face.

Later, when they all rose from the table, Mrs. Tascher, under some
pretext or other, detained him a moment. "Do go!" she said: "you see how
it is--Ruth never has the doctor to herself a moment any more. They used
to take delightful little moonlight strolls together, and were as happy
as a pair of young lovers ought to be. Now there is always a third
party."

"Oh! So you think I ought to sacrifice myself to the happiness of the
precious lovers? And what if I get enthralled myself? Who will come to
my rescue?"

"I am willing to trust you," laughed Mrs. Tascher. "You have thirty
years upon your head, and a vast amount of hard practicality in it: Dr.
Ebling lacks something of both."

The girls had got their hats and were already out upon the veranda.

"Come, Bruce: have you decided whether there is an important case
pending or not?" called the doctor.

Mrs. Tascher gave him a little push, and he sauntered out. She stood in
the doorway and saw him, with a feeling of satisfaction, pair off with
Miss Custer after they had got outside the gate. "I believe she likes
him twenty times better than she does the doctor," she soliloquized.
"And yet with what persistency she clings to Ruth and her lover! Poor
Ruth! She takes her down in good faith."

The stream upon which Westbrook was built was about half a mile distant,
and the sun was going down when they reached the big oak where the boat
was anchored. Doctor Ebling clambered down the steep bank and unlocked