ing. "I tell you what I'll do, Ben,"
he said at last, with a flash of inspiration, "I'll go in with you and
see if I can't cheer up Sally a bit."

When we reached my door, he let the reins fall over the back of his old
horse, and getting out, hobbled, with my assistance, upstairs, and into
Sally's sitting-room, where we found George Bolingbroke, looking
depressed and sullen.

She was charmingly dressed, as usual, and as the General entered, she
came forward to meet him with the gracious manner which some one had
told me was a part, not of her Bland, but of her Fairfax inheritance.
"That's a pretty tea-gown you've got on," observed the great man, in the
playful tone in which he might have remarked to a baby that it was
wearing a beautiful bib. "You haven't been paying much attention to
fripperies of late, Ben tells me. Have you seen any hats? I don't know
anything better for a woman's low spirits, my dear, than a trip to New
York to buy a hat."

She laughed merrily, while her eyes met George Bolingbroke's over the
General's head.

"I bought six hats last month," she replied.

"And you didn't feel any better?"

"Not permanently. Then Ben got me a diamond bracelet." She held out her
arm, with the bracelet on her wrist, which looked thin and transparent.

The General bent his bald head over the trinket, which he examined as
attentively as if it had been a report of the Great South Midland and
Atlantic Railroad.

"Ben's got good taste," he observed; "that's a pretty bracelet."

"Yes, it's a pretty bracelet."

"But that didn't make you feel any brighter?"

"Oh, I'm well," she responded, laughing. "I've just been telling George
I'm so well I'm going to a ball with him."

"To a ball," I said; "are you strong enough for that, Sally?"

"I'm quite strong, I'm well, I feel wildly gay."

"It's the best thing for her," remarked the General. "Don't stop her,
Ben, let her go."

At dinner that night, in a gorgeous lace gown, with pearls on her throat
and in her hair, she was cheerful, animated, almost, as she had said,
wildly gay. When George came for her, I put her into the carriage.

"Are you all right?" I asked anxiously. "Are you sure you are strong
enough, Sally?"

"Quite strong. What will you do, Ben?"

"I've got to work. There are some papers to draw up. Don't let her stay
late, George."

"Oh, I'll take care of her," said George. "Good-night."

She leaned out, touching my hand. "You'll be in bed when I c