peared like a radiant vision before the tired,
sad eyes of the sick child.

Nora was just well enough to feel the monotony of her present position,
to think longingly of the life of active movement which was hers at the
Towers. Even lessons in the old schoolroom, even that hateful darning
and mending to which she had to devote a portion of her time each day,
seemed delightful in contrast to her present inertia. She was thinking
of Friar's Wood and of Annie's bright face just when Annie herself,
looking like a bit of the summer morning, appeared in view.

"Now, don't get excited," said Annie smiling at her. "You'll see such a
lot of me during the next few weeks that you need not get into a state
just because I've come into the room. I feel that in a certain fashion I
am to blame for your accident, so I am going to take your amusements
upon my shoulders; and if you just allow me to manage matters, I'll
promise that you shan't have a dull time while you are getting well.
Have you a headache?"

"No, not a bit."

"That's all right; then you won't mind my talking. Are you fond of
pretty things?"

"Yes, very fond."

"Well, I'll sit here, just where you can comfortably see the flowers and
me. I expect we'll make a very pretty picture, but you need not say so.
I wonder where there's a looking-glass. Oh, yes, in that corner,
decently covered with an antimacassar. Well, then, glass, you have got
to uncover for my benefit. I wish to see whether I look pretty or not."

Annie danced up to the glass; Nora could watch her each movement.

Her steps were as light as a sylph's, nothing rattled in the sick-room
as she moved about it. She took up a comb and re-arranged her dark,
curling hair. She placed a rose in her belt, nodded to her own bright
image, and then, seating herself before a small table, began to arrange
the flowers. "Nora, you can't think what a mass of roses there are in
the green-house this morning. Of course the garden is full, too, but I
did not wait to go to the garden to get these for you. You can watch me
just as long as you fancy and then shut your eyes. These half-open buds
are to be placed on a table close to you, where you can smell them. The
other flowers we'll put here and there about the room. It's a good
thing you were brought into this pretty study, for from where you lie
you can fancy you are in a sitting-room, and that you are just having a
stretch on the sofa to rest yourself. Fancy goes a long way