p women and children the
regular busses wouldn't stop for," laughed Archie. "If you're renting a
house from that family it's just as well to look into it carefully. All
right, May; I'll inspect the premises for you."

In spite of his good-natured assent she continued to pile up excuses
for her husband and explained in great detail the rundown condition of
the children which made it necessary to get them out of Washington as
quickly as possible. Archie was already mentally planning the details of
his trip with his customary exactness. As he traveled constantly in the
interest of his health, which had been a cause of solicitude to himself
and all his relatives as far back as any one could remember, he knew
train schedules by heart, and by catching the Federal Express the next
night he would be able to connect with a train at Boston that would land
him at Bailey Harbor at two o'clock the same day.

With any sort of luck he could escape from the Harbor, reach New York
the following morning and proceed immediately westward. A few telegrams
would readjust matters so that he would lose only a day in setting out
for Banff, which his newest doctor had told him was an ideal spot for
him. Many other doctors had posted him off to numerous other places in
pursuit of the calm or stimulus or whatever it was he needed to make him
a sound man capable of taking some part in the world's affairs. Archie's
condition was always a grateful topic of conversation and now that his
sister had told him how many bedrooms her menage required, and warned
him particularly to be sure that there was a sleeping porch and a
garage, and not to forget to look carefully into the drainage system of
the entire Maine coast; having watched him make notes of these matters,
Mrs. Featherstone, in her most sisterly tone, broached the subject of
his health.

"Your troubles, Archie, are all due to the scarlet fever you had when
you were a child. I've thought that if you could ever get into some
active work it would cure you. These sanatoriums you live in most of the
time never do you any good. They just keep you thinking about yourself.
What you need is a complete upsetting,--something that would give a new
turn to your life. And, you know," she went on softly, "I'd hoped,
Archie, that the right girl would turn up one of these days and that
that would prove the panacea. But the girls I've picked out never
pleased you, and here you are, the finest brother in the worl