pproaching group. His gaze
fixed on the young man with the well-set head who, swinging his hat in
his hand, was talking fast to Eloise of something that amused them both.
Jewel apparently interrupted him and he stooped with a quick motion,
and in a second she was sitting on his shoulder, shrieking in gleeful
surprise.

Thus they approached the piazza and came close before noting that it was
occupied.

"Grandpa, see me!" cried Jewel delightedly.

Bonnell met the unsmiling gaze of his host as Mr. Evringham rose, and
then caught sight of Mrs. Evringham stonily gazing from her chair.

"Ah, how do you do?" he called laughingly.

"Jove, he is a good looking chap!" thought the host, and Bonnell set
Jewel down at his feet with such velocity that Anna Belle was cast
heavily to earth.

"A thousand pardons!" exclaimed Nat, catching up the doll by the skirt
and restoring her.

Jewel gave him a bright look. "_She_ knows there is no sensation in
matter," she said scornfully.

Poor Anna Belle! The topography of the ravine was full of hazards for
her, and her seasons there were always so adventurous and full of sudden
and unlooked-for bumps that her philosophy was well tested, and she
might reasonably have complained of this gratuitous blow; but she smiled
on, as Jewel hugged her. Her mental poise was marvelous, whatever might
be said of the physical.

Eloise introduced her friend and went to her mother's side, while
Bonnell shook hands with Mr. Evringham and exchanged some words
concerning Mr. Reeves and business matters.

"Wide awake," was the older man's mental comment. "Doesn't seem at all
the sort of person to be fooled about that healing business. Good eye.
Good manner. Perhaps this was Ballard's handicap all the time. I guess
you're in for it, Madge."

Nat moved to greet Mrs. Evringham, who gave him no welcoming smile. She
leaned back listlessly, not caring what effect she produced. He seemed
to her a part of the combination entered into by the Fates to thwart and
annoy.

Bonnell knew her nearly as well as Eloise did. "I'm sorry you're under
the weather," he said sympathetically, when he had discovered that, in
his own phrase, there was "nothing doing." "I received a letter from my
mother to-day, in which she impressed upon me that she expected you both
by the middle of June."

"My plans have changed since yesterday, Nat," returned Mrs. Evringham
dismally. "Yes. We shall not be able to go to your mother's, as I