she had heard, struck her speechless once more.

"Don't take the trouble to speak," said Doctor Frank, "my news has
stunned you. I shall leave you to think it all over by yourself, and I
trust there will be an end of tears and melancholy faces. It is ever
darkest before the day dawns. Good-evening!"

He was going, but she laid her hand on his arm.

"Wait a moment," she said, finding her voice. "I am so confused and
bewildered that I hardly understand what you have said. But should it
all be true--you know--you know--" averting her face, "he believes me
guilty!"

"We will undeceive him; I can give him proofs, 'strong as Holy Writ;'
and, if he loves you, he will be open to conviction. All will come right
after a while; only have patience and wait. Keep up a good heart, my
dear child, and trust in God."

She dropped feebly into a chair, looking with a bewildered face at the
fire.

"I can't realize it," she murmured. "It is like a scene in a novel. I
can't realize it."

She heard the door close behind Doctor Frank--she heard a girlish voice
accost him in the hall. It was Miss Rose, in a rustling silk
dinner-dress, with laces, and ribbons, and jewels fluttering and
sparkling about her.

"Is Agnes Darling in there?" she asked suspiciously.

"Yes. I have just been making a professional call."

"Professional! I thought she was well."

"Getting well, my dear Miss Rose; getting well, I am happy to say. It is
the duty of a conscientious physician to see after his patients until
they are perfectly recovered."

"I wonder if conscientious physicians find the duty more binding in the
case of young and pretty patients than in that of old and ugly ones?"

"No," said Doctor Frank, impressively. "To professional eyes, the
suffering fellow-creature is a suffering fellow-creature, and nothing
more. Think better of us, my dear girl; think better of me."

After dinner, in the drawing-room, Captain Danton, with Grace for a
partner, the Doctor with Eeny, sat down to a game of cards. Kate sat at
the piano, singing a fly-away duet with Miss Howard. Mr. Howard stood at
Miss Danton's right elbow devotedly turning the music; and in a little
cozy velvet sofa, just big enough for two, Reginald and Rose were
tete-a-tete.

In the changed days that came after, Doctor Frank remembered that
picture--the exquisite face at the piano, the slender and stately form,
the handsome man, and the pretty coquette on the sofa. The song sung
that ni