, you wouldn't," said Madison cheerfully. "But time's flying. You're
going to have visitors in a few minutes, and here's where the Patriarch
gets tucked away out of sight behind the veil for a starter, leaving his
presence hovering and throbbing all around in the air--you stay with
him, Flopper, in a back room somewhere and hold his hand. Where is he
now?"

"In his armchair in the sitting-room," said Helena. "And he's still
listening in that queer way he did out on the lawn. I think he knows in
a little way what's happened."

"That's good," said Madison; "it'll make him happy. Well, lead him
gently into retirement. I guess that's all--now hurry."

"Who is it that's coming?" interposed Helena quickly, as Madison
started away from the window.

Madison grinned.

"Some friends of the Hopper's. Mr. and Mrs. Thankoffering--you'll like
them immensely, Helena. The lady walks quite well now, and--"

"Walks!" exclaimed the Flopper, who evidently had not assimilated
Madison's previous reference to Mrs. Thornton. "De lady dat I come wid
in de private car--_walks_?"

"Of course," said Madison pleasantly.

"Cured? All cured?" gasped the Flopper.

"Of course," said Madison again--complacently.

"Say," said the Flopper, "say, I'm goin' dippy. Another one de same as
de kid, Doc?"

"Same as the kid, Flopper--faith."

"Swipe me!" said the Flopper helplessly.

--XII--

"SAID THE SPIDER TO THE FLY"

By the wheel-chair, Mrs. Thornton, her husband and Doc Madison were in
earnest conversation--and around them was a mass of people. The crowd
had divided into two, or, rather, was constantly coming and going
between two points--young Holmes and Mrs. Thornton--and still the
hysteria was upon men and women, still that wavering, moanlike sound
floated over the lawn.

"I am stunned and stupified," Madison was saying, and his hand trembled
visibly in its outflung gesture. "I am not, I am afraid, a man of deep
sensibilities, but I cannot help feeling that I have been permitted,
been chosen even, to witness this sight, a sight that will stay with me
till I die, for some great, ulterior purpose. It's as though this place
were hallowed, set apart; that here, if only one has faith, that man's
miraculous power is boundless--that I should help someway. I--I'm afraid
I don't explain myself well."

"I know what you mean," Mrs. Thornton returned eagerly. "It is what I
was saying to my husband--to make this place known, to help to