moment there came the sound of a manly footstep, and in walked the
doctor, large, stout, beaming, a very incarnation of health and good
spirits.

"Well, and so nurse tells me you think of going to the seaside to-day!
You are getting tired of yourself, and want a change--eh? I don't
wonder at that. You think you would enjoy having a little peep at the
world again? Let me feel your pulse and see if I can allow it."

The pulse was quite satisfactory, so nurse and doctor promptly set to
work to spread blankets on the couch, draw forward screens to prevent
possibility of draught, and bank up pillows to allow a glimpse of the
road beneath. Then Sylvia clasped her arms tightly round the nurse's
neck, the doctor raised her feet, there was a moment's dizzy confusion,
while her eyes swam and her ears hummed, and there she lay on the sofa,
as at the end of a long and arduous journey, while her attendants
wrapped her up in blankets and eiderdowns, and looked anxiously to see
how she had borne the exertion. The little face was very white, but
bright with pleasure and excitement, and the offer of smelling salts and
cordials was laughed aside with good-natured contempt.

"No, no--I'm all right--just a little breathless after that whirl
through space. How funny the room looks! I've looked at it broadways
so long that I can't recognise it from this point of view. Is that the
water-bed? What a strange-looking thing! just like a lot of hot bottles
joined together. It _is_ comfortable over here! I'd like to stay all
day. Oh, oh, oh! here's the butcher's cart! How lovely it is to see
the world again!"

The jovial-looking doctor shrugged his shoulders as he took his
departure. The poor child must have been in sad straits indeed if she
found the sight of a butcher's cart so exciting! He would have enjoyed
sitting beside her and listening to her rhapsodies, but was obliged to
hurry off to other patients, while Whitey seated herself beside the
couch, and began hemming strips of muslin to be made into those starched
cap-strings which were tied so jauntily beneath her chin.

"Oh, Whitey," cried Sylvia, "I feel better already! It all looks so
bright, and cheerful, and alive! I'm simply dying to go out for a
drive, and to see the people walking about. I used to think this such a
dull little road, but now it seems quite gay and fashionable. I've seen
three perambulators already, to say nothing of the butcher's cart! I
wish