said he never practised, and that he
would come only as a friend."

"Well, it isn't my idea of a friend--not to prescribe a single thing,"
protested Alice.

Yet it seemed that no prescription was needed, after all. The next
morning Theron woke to find himself feeling quite restored in spirits
and nerves. He sat up in bed, and after an instant of weakly giddiness,
recognized that he was all right again. Greatly pleased, he got up,
and proceeded to dress himself. There were little recurring hints of
faintness and vertigo, while he was shaving, but he had the sense
to refer these to the fact that he was very, very hungry. He went
downstairs, and smiled with the pleased pride of a child at the surprise
which his appearance at the door created. Alice and the Soulsbys were
at breakfast. He joined them, and ate voraciously, declaring that it was
worth a month's illness to have things taste so good once more.

"You still look white as a sheet," said Alice, warningly. "If I were
you, I'd be careful in my diet for a spell yet."

For answer, Theron let Sister Soulsby help him again to ham and eggs.
He talked exclusively to Sister Soulsby, or rather invited her by
his manner to talk to him, and listened and watched her with indolent
content. There was a sort of happy and purified languor in his physical
and mental being, which needed and appreciated just this--to sit next a
bright and attractive woman at a good breakfast, and be ministered to by
her sprightly conversation, by the flash of her informing and inspiring
eyes, and the nameless sense of support and repose which her near
proximity exhaled. He felt himself figuratively leaning against Sister
Soulsby's buoyant personality, and resting.

Brother Soulsby, like the intelligent creature he was, ate his breakfast
in peace; but Alice would interpose remarks from time to time. Theron
was conscious of a certain annoyance at this, and knew that he was
showing it by an exaggerated display of interest in everything Sister
Soulsby said, and persisted in it. There trembled in the background of
his thoughts ever and again the recollection of a grievance against
his wife--an offence which she had committed--but he put it aside as
something to be grappled and dealt with when he felt again like taking
up the serious and disagreeable things of life. For the moment, he
desired only to be amused by Sister Soulsby. Her casual mention of the
fact that she and her husband were taking their d