ously exact!--"_bad_." After a while he
came tiptoeing into the room.

"Headache? Sorry. Anything I can do?"

"No."

He did not urge; he was too engrossed in the shock of an escaped
catastrophe; _suppose Eleanor had read that dispatch_! Good God! Was
Lily mad? He must go and see her, quick, and say--He grew so angry as he
thought of what he was going to say that he did not hear Edith's
friendly comments on "poor dear Eleanor."

"Edith," he said, "that--that dispatch: I've got to see somebody on
business. Awfully sorry to take you out to Fern Hill before supper, but
I'm afraid I've got to rush off--"

"'Course! But don't bother to take me home. I can go by myself."

"No. It's all right. I have time; but I've got to go right off. I hate
to drag you away before supper--"

"That's of no consequence!" she said, but she gave Maurice a swift look.
What was the matter with him? His forehead, under that thatch of light
hair, was so lined, and his lips were set in such a harsh line, that he
looked actually _old_! Edith sobered into real anxiety. "I wish," she
said, "that you wouldn't go out to Fern Hill; you'll have to come all
the way back to town for your appointment!"

He said, "No: the--the appointment is on that side of the river." On the
trolley there was no more conversation than there might have been if
Eleanor had been present. At Edith's door he said, "'Night--"

But as he turned away, she called to him, "Maurice!" Then ran down the
steps and put her hand on his arm: "Maurice, look here; is there
anything I can do? You're bothered!"

He gave a grunt of laughter. "To be exact, Edith, I'm damned bothered.
I've been several kinds of a fool."

"You haven't! And it wouldn't make any difference if you had. Maurice,
you're a perfect _lamb_! I won't have you call yourself names! Why"--her
eyes were passionate with tenderness, but she laughed--"I used to call
you 'Sir Walter Raleigh,' you know, because you're great, simply great!
Maurice, I bet on you every time! Do tell me what's the matter? Maybe I
can help. Father says I have lots of sense."

Maurice shook his head. "You do have sense! I wish I had half as much.
No, Skeezics; there's nothing anybody can do. I pay as I go. But you're
the dearest girl on earth!"

She caught at his hand, flung her arm around his shoulder, and kissed
him: "You are the dearest boy on earth!" Before he could get his breath
to reply, she flew into the house--flew upstairs--flew into