would have been lost. But the little oven in the hollow and
Mrs. Sowerby's bounties were so satisfying that Mrs. Medlock and the
nurse and Dr. Craven became mystified again. You can trifle with your
breakfast and seem to disdain your dinner if you are full to the brim
with roasted eggs and potatoes and richly frothed new milk and oat-cakes
and buns and heather honey and clotted cream.

"They are eating next to nothing," said the nurse. "They'll die of
starvation if they can't be persuaded to take some nourishment. And yet
see how they look."

"Look!" exclaimed Mrs. Medlock indignantly. "Eh! I'm moithered to death
with them. They're a pair of young Satans. Bursting their jackets one
day and the next turning up their noses at the best meals Cook can
tempt them with. Not a mouthful of that lovely young fowl and bread
sauce did they set a fork into yesterday--and the poor woman fair
_invented_ a pudding for them--and back it's sent. She almost cried.
She's afraid she'll be blamed if they starve themselves into their
graves."

Dr. Craven came and looked at Colin long and carefully. He wore an
extremely worried expression when the nurse talked with him and showed
him the almost untouched tray of breakfast she had saved for him to look
at--but it was even more worried when he sat down by Colin's sofa and
examined him. He had been called to London on business and had not seen
the boy for nearly two weeks. When young things begin to gain health
they gain it rapidly. The waxen tinge had left Colin's skin and a warm
rose showed through it; his beautiful eyes were clear and the hollows
under them and in his cheeks and temples had filled out. His once dark,
heavy locks had begun to look as if they sprang healthily from his
forehead and were soft and warm with life. His lips were fuller and of a
normal color. In fact as an imitation of a boy who was a confirmed
invalid he was a disgraceful sight. Dr. Craven held his chin in his hand
and thought him over.

"I am sorry to hear that you do not eat anything," he said. "That will
not do. You will lose all you have gained--and you have gained
amazingly. You ate so well a short time ago."

"I told you it was an unnatural appetite," answered Colin.

Mary was sitting on her stool nearby and she suddenly made a very queer
sound which she tried so violently to repress that she ended by almost
choking.

"What is the matter?" said Dr. Craven, turning to look at her.

Mary became quite s