he had to fear.
But he controlled himself to answer simply, "I promise; I'll never let
him speak to me again. Don't be afraid; he shall never say anything to
me."

Her father came in presently, grumbling about the lack of light as he
stumbled against a chair. He let it be known that he had returned to the
city in some alarm about her, inspired by a letter from her aunt. She
hastily assured him that she was well--never better. But he demurred at
her remaining longer in town.

"You'll have to get out, daughter. It's beastly unpleasant doing those
slum things in summer. You need life and gayety. You come with me and
dance, play bridge, swim, sail--enjoy yourself with your own kind for a
while. You're going on Tom Neville's yacht to-morrow. He's to pick us up
about noon with Randy Teevan."

"Will he be there?" she asked.

"He will, and he'll be one of a jolly crowd that will 'liven you up.
Here's Clarence--he must come, too."

Her brother had felt his way through the darkness, and before she
guessed his intention he had found one of the electric lights and turned
it on. She shrank back with a strange, smothered cry, under the sudden
light, her hand before her face as if to ward off invisible horrors, her
eyes staring at them under it, wild with appeal. They were speechless
for the moment, alarmed by her manifest illness, her frightened, haggard
face, in which the fever raged. Her brother was the first to speak,
going to her and taking the blind, defending hand she had put out. She
clung to him when she felt his touch, but turned her face away.

"See here, Nell," he began, in tones of savage decision, "no yachting
trip for you, my girl. 'Twon't do, governor, you can see that for
yourself. But I'll tell you what she's going to do--she's going to pack
up and go back to the mountains with me and stay there till she's well."

She still clung to him, drawing his arms around her with an effect of
hiding.

"Yes, yes, that's it--let's go there--out where there's room. It's
stifling here. Have you noticed how curiously stifling it is? Too many
people, dead people and live people, and all hobnobbing. We must get
away, brother."

"You hear that, dad? She'll go back with me. How soon, Nell?--I say, how
soon?" he repeated, for she had not seemed to hear him.

"How soon?" She raised her eyes to them with sudden intelligence, then
sprang wildly to her feet.

"Oh, soon, at once!--Well, not to-night, perhaps,"--she sank back
a