where
he gladly lay quietly in the hammock and submitted to be waited on by
two devoted feminine slaves. The doctor came over to see him after
supper, and found him in a high state of restlessness. He got him to
bed, stayed with him until he fell into an uneasy slumber, then left him
in charge of Celia, and came so quietly down to the front porch again
that he startled Charlotte, who lay in the hammock Lanse had lately
quitted.

"Do you need me?" she asked eagerly. "I thought Lanse would rather have
Celia with him, and I was sure she wanted to take care of him, so I
stayed. But I'm ready, if I'm wanted."

"You're wanted," returned Doctor Churchill, gently, "but not up-stairs
just now. Lie still in that hammock; let me fix the pillows a bit. Yes,
do, please. Do you know it's positively the first time I've seen you
appearing to rest since I've known you?"

"Why, Doctor Churchill!"

"It's absolutely so. You're growing thin under the cares you've assumed.
And I suspect, besides the cares, you keep yourself busy when you ought
to be resting. Am I right?"

Charlotte coloured in the twilight of the porch, which the thick vines
of the wisteria screened from the electric light on the corner, except
for a few feet at the end nearest the door. She had been working harder
than ever all the spring over her designs for Chrystler & Company, and
her cheeks were of a truth somewhat less round and her colour less vivid
of hue. She was tired, although she had not owned it, even to herself.

"You see, Doctor Churchill," she said, slowly, "until father and mother
went away I had been the lazy one of the family, the
good-for-nothing--the drone--and I've not yet learned to work in the
quiet way my sister does, which accomplishes so much without any fuss.
Now that she can get about again she does twice as much as I do, but she
doesn't make such a clatter of tools, and doesn't get the credit for
being as busy as I."

"I see. Of course I had a feeling all along that this dish-washing and
dinner-getting and baby-tending were mere pretense, and I'm relieved to
have you own up to it!"

Charlotte laughed. "After all, one doesn't like to be taken at one's own
estimate," she admitted. "I confess I feel a pang to have you agree with
me, even in jest."

"Do you know," he said, abruptly, after an instant's silence, "you gave
me great pleasure this morning?"

"I? How?"

"By the way you stood by your brother."

"Oh!" said Charlotte, astoni