e looked away, and then looked back again to find that
his gaze was still upon her. He had made his living since he was a child
by his faculty for sizing people up, and at his first glimpse of Mrs.
Baxter's shifting glance he had sized her up; so that now, when she
remarked with an amiability at once ponderous and shaky that it was a
very fine day, he replied in exactly the same tone, "It is that," and
began to walk about the room looking at the pictures. Presently a low,
but sweet, whistle broke from his lips. He made her feel uncommonly
uncomfortable, so uncomfortable that she was driven to conversation.

"Are you fond of pictures, Burke?" she asked. He just looked at her over
his shoulder without answering. She began to wish that Adelaide would
come back.

Adelaide had found her husband still accessible. He received in silence
the announcement that Burke was down-stairs. She told the message
without bias.

"He says that they have it on him on the dock that he is to be bounced.
He asked me to say this to you: that if he is to go, he'll go to-day."

"What was his manner?"

Adelaide could not resist a note of enjoyment entering into her tone as
she replied:

"Insolent in the extreme."

She was leaning against the wall at the foot of his bed, and though she
was not looking at him, she felt his eyes on her.

"Adelaide," he said, "you should not have brought me that message."

"You mean it is bad for your health to be worried, dearest?" she asked
in a tone so soft that only an expert in tones could have detected
something not at all soft beneath it. She glanced at her husband under
her lashes. Wasn't he any more an expert in her tones?

"I mean," he answered, "that you should have told him to go to the
devil."

"Oh, I leave that to you, Vin." She laughed, and added after a second's
pause, "I was only a messenger."

"Tell him I shall be down-town next week."

"Oh, Vin, no; not next week."

"Tell him next week."

"I can't do that."

"I thought you were only a messenger."

"Your doctor would not hear of it. It would be madness."

Farron leaned over and touched his bell. The nurse was instantly in
the room, looking at Vincent, Adelaide thought, as a water-dog looks
at its master when it perceives that a stick is about to be thrown
into the pond.

"Miss Gregory," said Vincent, "there's a young man from my office
down-stairs. Will you tell him that I can't see him to-day, but that I
shall be down-town n