m of his hand and looking at it. And all
in a minute he crushed it to his face with both hands and against the
firelight I could see him quivering.

I stepped back into the pantry and came out again noisily. He
was standing very calm and quiet where he had been before, and no
handkerchief in sight.

"Well," I said, "did you get it?"

"Get what?"

"Miss Patty's handkerchief?"

"Oh--that! Yes. Here it is." He pulled it out of his pocket and held it
up by the corner.

"Ridiculous size, isn't it, and--" he held it up to his nose--"I dare
say one could almost tell it was hers by the scent. It's--it's like
her."

"Humph!" I said, suddenly suspicious, and looked at it. "Well," I said,
"it may remind you of Miss Patty, and the scent may be like Miss Patty,
but she doesn't use perfume on her handkerchief. This has an E. C. on
it, which means Eliza Cobb."

He left soon after, rather crestfallen, but to save my life I couldn't
forget what I'd seen--him with that scrap of linen that he thought was
hers crushed to his face, and his shoulders heaving. I had an idea that
he hadn't cared much for women before, and that, this being a first
attack, he hadn't established what the old doctor used to call an
immunity.

CHAPTER XIV

PIERCE DISAPPROVES

Mrs. Hutchins came out to the spring-house the next morning. She was
dressed in a black silk with real lace collar and cuffs, and she was so
puffed up with pride that she forgot to be nasty to me.

"I thought I'd better come to you, Minnie," she said. "There seems to be
nobody in authority here any more. Mr. Carter has put the--has put Mr.
von Inwald in the north wing. I can not imagine why he should have given
him the coldest and most disagreeable part of the house."

I said I'd speak to Mr. Carter and try to have him moved, and she
rustled over to where I was brushing the hearth and stooped down.

"Mr. von Inwald is incognito, of course," she said, "but he belongs to a
very old family in his own country--a noble family. He ought to have the
best there is in the house."

I promised that, too, and she went away, but I made up my mind to talk
to Mr. Pierce. The sanatorium business isn't one where you can put your
own likes and dislikes against the comfort of the guests.

Miss Cobb came out a few minutes after; she had on her new green silk
with the white lace trimming. She saw me staring as she threw off her
cape and put her curler on the log.

"It's a little dre