s saying. "What further
directions I have must be given to a woman."

"Stay with Mamma, Father," called Ruth, looking up at her hesitating
father; "I shall see the doctor out;" and she quickly ran down the few
remaining steps to Kemp, awaiting her at the foot. She opened the
door of the library, and closing it quickly behind them, turned to him
expectantly.

"Nothing to be alarmed at," he said, answering her mute inquiry. He
seated himself at the table, and drew from his vest-pocket pencil and
blank. Without another glance at the girl, he wrote rapidly for some
minutes; then quickly moving back his chair, he arose and handed her the
two slips of paper.

"The first is a tonic which you will have made up," he explained,
picking up his gloves and hat and moving toward the door; "the other is
a diet which you are to observe. As I told her just now, she must remain
in bed and see no one but her immediate family; you must see that she
hears and reads nothing exciting. That is all, I think."

Indignation and alarm held riot in Ruth's face and arrested the doctor's
departure.

"Dr. Kemp," she said, "you force me to remind you of a promise you made
me last night. Will you at least tell me what ails my mother that you
use such strenuous measures?"

A flash of recollection came to the doctor's eyes.

"Why, this is an unpardonable breach upon my part, Miss Levice; but I
will tell you all the trouble. Your mother is suffering with a certain
form of hysteria to a degree that would have prostrated her had we not
come forward in time. As it is, by prostrating her ourselves for awhile,
say a month or so, she will regain her equilibrium. You have heard of
the food and rest cure?"

"Yes."

"Well, that is what she will undergo mildly. Has she any duties that
will suffer by her neglect or that will intrude upon her equanimity?"

"No necessary ones but those of the house. Under no circumstances can I
conceive of her giving up their supervision."

"Yet she must do so under the present state of affairs. Remember, her
mind must be kept unoccupied, but time must be made to pass pleasantly
for her. This is not an easy task, Miss Levice; but, according to my
promise, I have left you to undertake it."

"Thank you," she responded quietly.

Kemp looked at her with a sense of calm satisfaction.

"Good-morning," he said, holding out his hand with a smile.

As the door closed behind him, Ruth felt as if a burden had fallen from,
inst