st, to Eloise's relief, Mrs. Biggs said good-night, and left her
with the remark, "I don't s'pose you'll sleep a wink. I didn't the first
night after my sprain, nor for a good many nights neither."

CHAPTER V

AMY

"If this isn't a lark I never had one," Howard said to Jack, when they
were safely housed and had changed their clothes, not a thread of which
was dry.

Jack, whose luggage had not come, and who was obliged to borrow from
Howard's wardrobe, looked like an overgrown boy in garments too small
for him. But he did not mind it, and with Howard discussed the events of
the evening, as they sat over the fire the latter had lighted in his
room. Naturally Eloise was the subject of their conversation.

"I wrote you I had a presentiment that she was to come into my life in
some way, but I had no idea it was to be this way," Howard said, as he
puffed at his cigar and talked of their adventure and Eloise.

That she was very handsome and had pretty little feet went without
saying, and that both were sorry for her was equally, of course. Jack
was the more so, as his was the more unselfish and sympathetic nature.

"By Jove, didn't she bear the cutting of that boot like a hero, and how
is she ever to get to school with that ankle?" he said; "and I think she
ought to have a doctor to see if any bones are broken. Suppose you get
one in the morning, and tell him not to send his bill to her but to me."

Howard looked up quickly, and Jack went on, "I wrote you that Mrs.
Brown said she was poor, and I should know it by her boots."

"Her boots!" Howard repeated, and Jack continued, "Yes, wet as they were
I noticed they were half-worn, and had been blacked many times. She
can't afford to pay many doctor's bills, and I ask you again, how is she
to get to school?"

Howard did not know, unless they made another chair and carried her.

"I wouldn't mind it much for the sake of her arm around my neck. I can
feel it yet. Can't you?" he said.

Jack could feel it and the little wet hand which once or twice had
touched his face, but something in his nature forbade his talking about
it. It might have been fun for them, but he knew it was like death to
the girl, and that she had shrank from it all, and only submitted
because she could not help it. He was very sorry for her, and thought of
her the last moment before he fell asleep, and the first moment he awoke
with Howard in the room telling him it was after breakfast time, a