oul be simple, too? In fact,
it would necessarily be so, being one with the body. I think I can put
my hand on that book, and if I can I must make you take it with you."

He rose briskly from his chair, and went to the shelves, running his
fingers along the books with that subtlety of touch by which the student
knows a given book in the dark. He had heard Mrs. Ewbert stirring about
in the rooms beyond with an activity in which he divined a menacing
impatience; and he would have been glad to get rid of old Hilbrook
before her impatience burst in an irruption upon them. Perhaps because
of this distraction he could not find the book, but he remained on foot,
talking with an implication in his tone that they were both preparing to
part, and were now merely finishing off some odds and ends of discourse
before they said good-night.

Old Hilbrook did not stir. He was far too sincere a nature, Ewbert saw,
to conceive of such inhospitality as a hint for his departure, or he was
too deeply interested to be aware of it. The minister was obliged to sit
down again, and it was eleven o'clock before Hilbrook rose to go.

X.

Ewbert went out to the gate with the old man, and when he came back to
his study, he found his wife there looking strangely tall and monumental
in her reproach. "I supposed you were in bed long ago, my dear," he
attempted lightly.

"You _don't_ mean that you've been out in the night air without your hat
on!" she returned. "Well, this is too _much_!" Her long-pent-up
impatience broke in tears, and he strove in vain to comfort her with
caresses. "Oh, what a fatal day it was when you stirred that wretched
old creature up! _Why_ couldn't you leave him alone!"

"To his apathy? To his despair? Emily!" Ewbert dropped his arms from the
embrace in which he had folded her woodenly unresponsive frame, and
regarded her sadly.

"Oh yes, of course," she answered, rubbing her handkerchief into her
eyes. "But you don't know that it was despair; and he was quite happy in
his apathy; and as it is, you've got him on your hands; and if he's
going to come here every night and stay till morning, it will kill you.
You know you're not strong; and you get so excited when you sit up
talking. Look how flushed your cheeks are, now, and your eyes--as big!
You won't sleep a wink to-night,--I know you won't."

"Oh yes, I shall," he answered bravely. "I believe I've done some good
work with poor old Hilbrook; and you mustn't think he'