hought
it was the result of exposure to night-dews, carelessness in regard to
diet and lack of proper exercise.

Her presence, it must be allowed, put but little constraint upon the
extraordinary intimacy of the pair. The doctor was all devotion, and
Miss Custer all languor and dependence. She made a beautiful invalid,
with her rare complexion and her white, lissome hands lying so restfully
and helplessly on the counterpane. One day, after being freshly dressed
in an embroidered gown of the finest texture, and instructing Mrs.
Tascher how to wind her hair, which was long and abundant, around the
top of her head in a coronet that was very becoming to her, she
requested to have Mr. Bruce sent in when he came to his dinner. She had
some affairs that must be looked into immediately by a legal eye.

"Had you not better just send him a message?" asked Mrs. Tascher.

"No: I prefer to attend to it myself," she returned coldly.

Bruce was therefore sent in, and Mrs. Tascher stepped out into the
sitting-room. Miss Custer, who was certainly very white, raised her
dusky eyelids, smiled faintly and held out her jewelled hand. Bruce,
standing awkwardly enough by the bed-side, took it, but without apparent
appreciation of its loveliness.

The invalid had chosen an inopportune moment: despite the subdued light
of the chamber, it was high noon and the sun shone burningly outside,
and Bruce, who had just eaten a hearty dinner, was utterly devoid of
sentiment and indifferent to nice effects. There was a tumbler of dewy
roses on a little table beside the bed, and he picked out one, and,
sitting down, began eating the leaves one by one. "I hope," said he,
thinking it a good plan to rally the sick a little, "you haven't got so
discouraged by this indisposition--which the doctor tells me is not at
all serious--that you wish to make your will?"

"No," she returned, hardly able to conceal her disgust at the unfeeling
wretch: "I merely wish to send to my attorney for some money."

"Oh, is that it?" said Bruce, laughing. "Then the doctor was right. So
long as a person takes a controlling interest in his affairs he is
safe."

"A _person_!" thought Miss Custer, and really curled her lip. She gave
him her lawyer's address, stated the sum she wanted and told him he
might say that she was ill.

"And unable to write," added Bruce. "All right! I shall be as prompt in
the execution of your commission as the exigences of the case appear to
dema