l differently. Esther should have told----"

By the fashion in which Sylvia Wharton arose and walked away from the
bed, Betty realized how intensely their opinions disagreed, although
the younger girl moved quietly, with no anger or flurry and made no
reply.

"Here are some more roses, Betty, that John Everett sent you. Shall I
put them near enough your bed to have you enjoy their fragrance?"
Sylvia asked. "John seems to be buying up all the flowers near
Dartmouth. I told Meg that you would rather he did not send so many.
But she says she can't stop him. For somehow John feels kind of
responsible for your getting hurt, as he arranged for you to sit under
those particular candles. Then he did not notice when you first called
for help and let Anthony Graham rescue you. Meg is downstairs now with
your mother. Would you like to see her?"

Betty shook her head. "Please don't let Meg know, but I don't feel
like talking, somehow. The girls are so sweet and sympathetic. And I
try to be brave, but until I know----"

With magically quick footsteps the younger girl had again crossed the
room and her firm arms were soon about her friend's shoulders.

"You are going to be all right, dear. Dr. Barton is almost sure of it
and I am quite. There won't be any scars that will last and your
eyes--why, you protected them marvelously, and they only need resting.
You are too beautiful, Betty dear, to have anything happen that could
in any way mar you. I can't, I won't believe it."

And somehow Sylvia was one of those people in whose judgment and faith
one must always find healing. Betty said nothing more, only put out
her hand with an appealing gesture and caught hold of Sylvia's dress.

"I don't want to talk or to see people, and I'm tired of being read to.
What is there for me to do, Sylvia child, to make the hours pass?"

Rather desperately the younger girl looked about the great, sunshiny
room. It was not Betty's old blue room, but the room once used as a
store-room and afterwards occupied by Esther, into which Betty had
moved a short while before her accident. Imagination was not Sylvia
Wharton's strong point. She was an excellent nurse, quiet, firm and
patient and always to be relied upon. But what to do to make Betty
Ashton stop thinking of what might await her at the end of her weeks of
suffering must have taxed a far more fertile brain than Sylvia's.
However, the suggestion did not have to come from her; fo