arah suddenly.

"Bring me my coffee at once, if you please. What is the matter?"

The maid did not know. He was drinking his first cup when the
housekeeper entered the room, flushed of countenance.

"You'll have to excuse me, Mr. Evringham. I couldn't come a minute
sooner. Julia is sick."

"Sick! I should like to know why?"

"Why, she got sopping wet in that brook yesterday, and here, just as I
knew it would be, she's got a fever."

"A fever, eh?" repeated Mr. Evringham in a startled tone.

"Yes, sir, and what's more, when I told her you would send for the
doctor, it was worse than about the rubbers. She talked all the rubbish
you can think of. I'm sure she's flighty--said she never had a doctor,
that she always got well, and even cried when I told her that that was
nonsense."

"Was she ill all night, do you think?"

"I don't know. I found her trying to get up when I went to her room, and
I saw at once that she wasn't able to.

"Well, Mrs. Forbes, all I can do is to ask your pardon for adding so
much to your cares. Let Sarah bring me my eggs, and then, if you please,
telephone for Dr. Ballard to come over before his office hour."

"I will, sir, but I'll ask you to see the child before you go to town
and make her promise to behave about the doctor. You'd have thought I
was asking to let in a roaring lion."

"Shy, probably."

"Shy! That child shy!" thought Mrs. Forbes.

"She knows Dr. Ballard," continued the broker, "and if you had thought
to mention him, she wouldn't have made any fuss."

"If you'll excuse me differing with you, Mr. Evringham, I don't think
that child's got a shy bone in her body. In the trolley car yesterday,
didn't she make up to a perfect stranger! She eyed him and fingered that
little gold pin she wears, till he smiled and touched one of the same
pattern in his own cravat. Young as she is, she's some kind of a free
mason or secret society, you may be sure. I actually saw him take her
hand and give her the grip as he got out of the car. Why you know who it
is, it was Mr. Reeves of Highland Street."

"H'm. You are imaginative, Mrs. Forbes. Mr. Reeves is fond of children,
and Jewel has a friendly way of looking at people."

The housekeeper bridled. "Well, all is, I guess, you'll find I ain't
imaginative when you come to talk with her about the doctor," was the
firm response. "When I said medicine she looked as scared as if I'd said
poison."

"H'm. Been dosed then. Mother an allopa