panes:

"Fine laundering. Old laces a specialty. Desserts made to order."

"Old laces a specialty," I repeated, as if struck by the phrase. Then,
as my strength failed me, I sank on the stone step in the patch of
shade, and buried my face in my hands.

CHAPTER XXIX

IN WHICH WE RECEIVE VISITORS

I was still sitting there, with my head propped in my hands, when my
eyes, which had seen nothing before, saw Sally coming through the hot
dust in the street, with George Bolingbroke, carrying a bundle under his
arm, at her side. As she neared me a perplexed and anxious look--the
look I had seen always on the face of my mother when the day's burden
was heavy--succeeded the smiling brightness with which she had been
speaking to George.

"Why, Ben!" she exclaimed, quickening her steps, "what are you doing out
here in this terrible heat?"

"I got down and couldn't get back," I answered.

"Well, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Here, George, give me the
bundle and help him up."

"He deserves to be left here," remarked George, laughing good-humouredly
as he grasped my arm, and half led, half dragged me up the steps and
into the house. Then, when I was placed in the deep chintz-covered chair
by the window, Sally came in with a milk punch, which she held to my
lips while I drank.

"You're really very foolish, Ben."

"I know all, Sally," I replied, sitting up and pushing the glass and her
hand away, "and I'm going to get up and go back to work to-morrow."

"Then drink this, please, so you will be able to go. I suppose you saw
the sign," she pursued quietly, when I had swallowed the punch; "George
saw it, too, and it put him into a rage."

"What has George got to do with it?" I demanded with a pang in my heart.

"He hasn't anything, of course, but it was kind of him all the same to
want to lend me his money. You see, the way of it was that when you fell
ill, and there wasn't a penny in the house, I remembered how bitterly
you'd hated the idea of taking help."

I caught her hand to my lips. "I'd beg, borrow, or steal for you,
darling."

"You'd neglected to tell me that, so I didn't know. What I did was to
sit down and think hard for an hour, and at the end of that time, when
you were well enough to be left, I got on the car and went over to see
several women, who, I knew, were so rich that they had plenty of old
lace and embroidery. I told them exactly how it was and, of course, they
all wanted to give me