arms resting on the arms of the chair;
not merely stretched out upon them, but rather as if she used them
for support. His eyes wandered back again to her face. After a short
silence, he spoke.

"You have been feeling very tired lately; you have had unaccountable
pains flying about all over you, but specially your back has felt, as
you just said, somewhat 'broken.' You have generally noticed this
when you have been walking, or bending over your desk writing for the
'Idol-Breaker.'"

She laughed.

"Now please don't turn into a clairvoyant; I shall begin to think you
uncanny; and, besides, it would be an argument for Tom when we quarrel
about you."

"Then my surmises are true?"

"Substitute first person singular for second plural, and it might have
come from my own lips," said Erica, smiling. "But please stop; I'm
afraid you will try to turn prophet next, and I'm sure you will prophesy
something horrid."

"It would need no very clear-sighted prophet to prophesy that you will
have to let your wheels run down for a little while."

"Do you mean that you think I shall die?" asked Erica, languidly. "It
wouldn't be at all convenient just now; father couldn't spare me. Do you
know," and her face brightened, "he is really beginning to use me a good
deal?"

"I didn't mean that I thought your wheels would run down in that way,"
said Charles Osmond, touched by the pathos of her words. "I may even be
wrong, but I think you will want a long rest, and I am quite sure you
mustn't lose a day before seeing a doctor. I should like my brother to
see you; Brian is only junior partner, you know."

"What, another Mr. Osmond! How muddled we shall get between you all!"
said Erica, laughing.

"I should think that Brian might be Brian by this time," said Charles
Osmond; "that will dispose of one; and perhaps you would like to follow
the example of one of my servants, who, I hear, invariably speaks of me
as the 'dear rev.'"

Erica laughed.

"No, I shall call you my 'prophet,' though it is true you have begun by
being a prophet of evil! By the bye, you can not say again that I am not
impartial. What do you think Tom and I did last week?"

"Read the New Testament backward?"

"No, we went to a Holy Scripture Society meeting at Exeter Hall."

"Hope you were edified," said Charles Osmond, with a little twinkle in
his eye; but he sighed, nevertheless.

"Well," said Erica, "it was rather curious to hear everything reversed,
and the