of
it all seemed heavy. The trained nurses found that some more powerful
stimulant than the medicine was needed to awaken his ambition, and they
discovered it at last in Peggy.

"Child," he said to her the first time she was permitted to see him,
and his eyes had lights in them: "do you know, this isn't such a bad
old world after all. Sometimes as I've lain here, it has looked twisted
and queer. But there are things that straighten it out. To-day I feel
as though I had a place in it--as though I could fight things and win
out. What do you think, Peggy? Do you suppose there is something that I
could do? You know what I mean--something that some one else would not
do a thousand times better."

But Peggy, to whom this chastened mood in Monty was infinitely
pathetic, would not let him talk. She soothed him and cheered him and
touched his hair with her cool hands. And then she left him to think
and brood and dream.

It was many days before his turbulent mind drifted to the subject of
money, but suddenly he found himself hoping that the surgeons would be
generous with their charges. He almost suffered a relapse when Lotless,
visibly distressed, informed him that the total amount would reach
three thousand dollars.

"And what is the additional charge for the operation?" asked Monty,
unwilling to accept such unwarranted favors.

"It's included in the three thousand," said Lotless. "They knew you
were my friend and it was professional etiquette to help keep down
expenses."

For days Brewster remained at Mrs. Gray's, happy in its restfulness,
serene under the charm of Peggy's presence, and satisfied to be
hopelessly behind in his daily expense account. The interest shown by
the inquiries at the house and the anxiety of his friends were soothing
to the profligate. It gave him back a little of his lost self-respect.
The doctors finally decided that he would best recuperate in Florida,
and advised a month at least in the warmth. He leaped at the
proposition, but took the law into his own hands by ordering General
Manager Harrison to rent a place, and insisting that he needed the
companionship of Peggy and Mrs. Gray.

"How soon can I get back to work, Doctor?" demanded Monty, the day
before the special train was to carry him south. He was beginning to
see the dark side of this enforced idleness. His blood again was
tingling with the desire to be back in the harness of a spendthrift.

"To work?" laughed the physician. "And