languidly the moving, various
groups of travellers clustered about in the room.

"Madge, it's like a dream!" murmured the one girl to the other.

"What? If you mean this crowd, _my_ dreams have more order in them."

"I mean, being away from Esterbrooke, and off a sick-bed, and moving,
and especially going to--where we are going. It's a dream!"

"Why?"

"Too good to be true. I had thought, do you know, I never should make a
visit there again."

"Why not, Lois?"

"I thought it would be best not. But now the way seems clear, and I can
take the fun of it. It is clearly right to go."

"Of course! It is always right to go wherever you are asked."

"O no, Madge!"

"Well,--wherever the invitation is honest, I mean."

"O, that isn't enough."

"What else? supposing you have the means to go. I am not sure that we
have that condition in the present instance. But if you have, what else
is to be waited for?"

"Duty--" Lois whispered.

"O, bother duty! Here have you gone and almost killed yourself for
duty."

"Well,--supposing one does kill oneself?--one must do what is duty."

"That isn't duty."

"O, it may be."

"Not to kill yourself. You have almost killed yourself, Lois."

"I couldn't help it."

"Yes, you could. You make duty a kind of iron thing."

"Not iron," said Lois; she spoke slowly and faintly, but now she
smiled. "It is golden!"

"That don't help. Chains of gold may be as hard to break as chains of
iron."

"Who wants them broken?" said Lois, in the same slow, contented way.
"Duty? Why Madge, it's the King's orders!"

"Do you mean that you were ordered to go to that place, and then to
nurse those children through the fever?"

"Yes, I think so."

"I should be terribly afraid of duty, if I thought it came in such
shapes. There's the train!--Now if you can get downstairs--"

That was accomplished, though with tottering steps, and Lois was safely
seated in one of the cars, and her head pillowed upon the back of the
seat. There was no more talking then for some time. Only when Haarlem
bridge was past and New York close at hand, Lois spoke.

"Madge, suppose Mrs. Wishart should not be here to meet us? You must
think what you would do."

"Why, the train don't go any further, does it?"

"No!--but it goes back. I mean, it will not stand still for you. It
moves away out of the station-house as soon as it is empty."

"There will be carriages waiting, I suppose. But I am sure I hope she
will m