o that she had not been able to leave East
Angels, or her bed. Everything that care or money could do for her had
been done, Winthrop having sent north for "fairly _ship-loads_ of every
known luxury," Betty Carew declared, "so that it makes a _real_ my ship
comes from India, you know, loaded with everything wonderful, from brass
beds down to verily _ice-cream_!" It was true that a schooner had
brought ice; and many articles had been sent down from New York by sea.
The interior of the old house now showed its three eras of occupation,
as an old Roman tower shows its antique travertine at the base, its
mediaeval sides, and modern top. In the lower rooms and in the corridors
there remained the original Spanish bareness, the cool open spaces
empty of furniture. Then came the attempted prettinesses of Mrs. Thorne,
chiefly manifested in toilet-tables made out of wooden boxes, covered
with paper-cambric, and ruffled and flounced in white muslin, in a very
large variety of table mats, in pin-cushions, in pasteboard brackets
adorned with woollen embroidery. Last of all, incongruously placed here
and there, came the handsome modern furniture which had been ordered
from the North by Winthrop when Dr. Kirby finally said that Mrs.
Rutherford would not be able to leave East Angels for many a month to
come.

The thick walls of the old house, the sea-breeze, the spaciousness of
her shaded room, together with her own reduced condition, had prevented
the invalid from feeling the heat. Margaret and Winthrop, who had not
left her, had learned to lead the life which the residents led; they
went out in the early morning, and again at nightfall, but through the
sunny hours they kept within-doors; during the middle of the day indeed
no one stirred; even the negroes slept.

The trouble with the hip had declared itself on the very day Winthrop
had announced his engagement to the group of waiting friends at the
lower door. The news, therefore, had not been repeated in the sick-room;
Mrs. Rutherford did not know it even now. Her convalescence was but just
beginning; throughout the summer, and more than ever at present, Dr.
Kirby told them, the hope of permanent recovery for her lay in the
degree of tranquillity, mental as well as physical, in which they should
be able to maintain her, day by day. Winthrop and Margaret knew that
tranquillity would be at an end if she should learn what had happened;
they therefore took care that she should not lear