d make her happier than Jelnik could. Dear and lovely as she
is, she couldn't make him happy, either--Don't you think I'm a fool,
Sophy?"

"No," said I, smiling wanly; "I don't."

"This business of being in love is a damnable arrangement. Here was
I," he grumbled, "busy, reasonably happy, with a sound mind in a
sound body, and a digestion that was a credit to me. And along comes
a girl, and everything's changed! My work doesn't fill my days, my
food is bitter in my mouth, and I wake up in the night saying to
myself, 'You fool, you're chasing rainbows!' Sophy, don't you ever
fall in love with somebody you know you can't have! It's hell!"

I didn't tell him I knew it.

One of his men came to tell him he was needed urgently. As it meant
a thirty-mile trip and the night was cold, I made him wait for a cup
of coffee and an omelet."

"Miss Smith--"

"You said 'Sophy' a while ago. 'Sophy' sounds all right to me."

"It sounds fine to me, too, Sophy." And he reached out and seized my
hand with a grip that made me wince.

"I told you I was a bear!" he said, regretfully.

When Alicia returned, she came, as usual, to my room.

"I am tired!" she yawned, and curled herself up on the bed.

"Didn't you have a nice time?"

"Oh, I suppose so! Everybody was lovely to me, and I could have
divided my dances. These Southerners are easy to love, aren't they?
I find it very easy for me! And oh, Sophy, there's to be a picnic
day after to-morrow, at the Meade plantation, in my honor, if you
please! We go by automobile.--I never thought I could get tired
dancing, Sophy. But I am. Tired!"

"Go to bed and sleep it off."

"Did you have time to make out that grocery list? They've been
overcharging us on butter."

"Yes: I finished it after Doctor Geddes left"

"Oh! He was here, then?" She yawned again.

"Yes. But somebody sent for him, and he had to cut his visit short."

Alicia frowned.

"I wonder he keeps so healthy, running out at all hours of the
night; and heaven knows how he manages about meals! His cook told me
that sometimes he has to rush away in the middle of a meal, and
sometimes he misses one altogether."

"I remembered that, so I made him wait for a cup of coffee and an
omelet."

She reached over and squeezed my hand. "You're always thinking about
other people's comfort, Sophy." She paused, and looked at me
half-questioningly:

"I wish he had somebody to look after him," she said in a low voice,
"somebody li