sympathy, the shadows of fatigue lay on them
so heavily. But Miss Evelyn Lee's smile was bright if fleeting, and she
answered Jeff's announcement that he had a carriage waiting with so
appreciative a word of gratitude that he found his preconceived
antipathy to Doctor Churchill's guests slipping away.

So presently he had them in a carriage and bowling through the streets
which led toward the suburbs. Thorne Lee sat beside his sister,
supporting her, and talked with Jeff. By the time they had covered the
long drive to the house Jeff was hoping Lee would stay a month.

The hazel eyes of Lee's young sister had closed and the lashes lay
wearily sweeping the pale cheeks as the carriage drove up.

"Are we there?" Lee asked, bending over the slight figure. "Open your
eyes, dear."

Jeff jumped out and ran to the house. He burst in upon Charlotte and
Andy. "Your friends are here!" he shouted. "I had to meet 'em myself."

Doctor Churchill and Charlotte were at the door before the words were
out of Jeff's mouth, and in a moment more Andy was lifting Evelyn Lee's
light figure in his arms, thanking heaven inwardly as he did so for his
young wife's wholesome weight. At the same moment words of of eager,
cheery welcome for his old friend were on his lips:

"Thorne Lee, I'm gladder to see you than anybody in the world! Miss
Evelyn, here's Mrs. Churchill. She's not an old married woman at
all--she's the dearest girl in the world. She's going to seem to you
like one of your schoolfellows. Charlotte, here she is; take good care
of her."

Thorne Lee stood looking on, a relieved smile on his lips as his old
friend's wife took his sick little sister into her charge. It was not
two minutes before he saw Evelyn, lying pale and mute on the couch, yet
smiling up at Charlotte's bright young face.

Charlotte administered a cup of hot bouillon talking so engagingly
meanwhile that Evelyn was beguiled into taking without protest the whole
of the much-needed nourishment. Then he saw the young invalid carried
off to bed, relieved of the necessity of meeting any more members of the
household. He learned, as Charlotte slipped into the room after an
hour's absence, that Evelyn had already dropped off to sleep. He leaned
back in his chair with a long breath.

"What kind of a girl is this you've married, Andy?" he asked, with a
smile and a look from one to the other. The three were alone, Mrs.
Peyton and her children having gone out to some sort