sheets and something hot to drink, something comes back. I suppose it's
life force; but not much--never as much as when I started the collapse.
I'm getting weaker every hour; don't you notice it? I never approved of
all this lying in bed. I shall speak to Dr. Gurnet about it to-morrow."

Winn had noticed it; he came and sat down by Mr. Bouncing's bed.

"Snowy weather," he suggested, "takes the life out of you."

Mr. Bouncing ignored this theory.

"I hear," he went on, "that you and your new friend have changed your
table. You don't sit with the Rivers any more."

"No," said Winn, laconically; "table isn't big enough."

"I expect they eat too fast," Mr. Bouncing continued; "young people
almost always eat too fast. You'll digest better at another table. You
look to me as if you had indigestion now."

Winn shook his head.

"Look here, Bouncing," he said earnestly, "I'm going off to St. Moritz
next week to have a look at the Cresta; I wish you'd have a nurse.
Drummond will run in and give an eye to you, of course; but you're
pretty seedy, and that's a fact. I don't like leaving you alone."

"Next week," said Mr. Bouncing, thoughtfully. "Well, I dare say I shall
be ready by then. It would be a pity, when I've just got you into the
way of doing things properly, to have to teach them all over again to
somebody else. I'm really not quite strong enough for that kind of
thing. But I'm not going to have a nurse. Oh, dear, no! Nurses deceive
you and cheer you up. I don't feel well enough to be cheered up. I like
somebody who is thoroughly depressed himself, as you are, you know. I
dare say you think I notice nothing lying here, but I've noticed that
you're thoroughly depressed. Have you quarreled with your friend? It's
odd you rush off to St. Moritz alone just when he's arrived."

"No, it isn't," said Winn, hastily. "He'll join me later; he's staying
here at my request."

Mr. Bouncing sighed gently.

"Well," he said; "then all I can say is that you make very odd requests.
One thing I'm perfectly sure about: if you go and look at the Cresta,
you'll go down it, you're such a careless man, and then you'll be
killed. Is that what you want?"

"I could do with it," said Winn, briefly.

"That," said Mr. Bouncing, "is because you're strong. It really isn't
nice to talk in that light way about being killed to any one who has got
to be before very long whether he likes it or not. If you were in my
place you'd value your lif