tir alone any more. Now it looks more as if I might be
somebody in time, and I can wait."

"Strikes me you've been waiting about long enough," Hubert returned
impatiently. "I wish you'd hurry up and come to life. There's fun enough
to be had, as soon as you're on your legs again."

"I should think it would seem queer to you to see me walking," Billy
observed reflectively.

"It does. I can't make it seem a part of you, somehow. I'm so used to
the chair," Theodora said, as she joined the group. "After all, Billy, I
think I shall miss it a little."

Well she might, for by this time the chair had become a part of her
life. Leaving Patrick to his own devices, the two young people had
explored the town, wandering here and there as Billy's curiosity or
Theodora's whim took them. There were days when Billy was too weak for
his ride, there were days when Theodora was too busy with other things
to take him out during the warmer part of the day; but, as a rule, three
or four times a week they wandered away in search of fresh scenes and an
occasional adventure.

"By the way, Ted, how comes on the story?" Billy asked, as they drew
near the steps once more and Mulvaney came forward to meet them.

"Seventeen chapters are done," she answered, slackening her pace a
little.

"Moses! How many do you expect to have?"

"I don't know. They seem to count up awfully fast. I've only just come
to the first of the lovering. I can't seem to make much of that. I do
wish I knew how people make love."

"Perhaps you'll find out, some day," Billy suggested.

But Theodora frowned on him.

"Don't be silly. I'm not that kind, nor you either. I wish you could
help me out on it. Don't people ever--"

"Collaborate? Yes. When are you going to read it to me?"

"Do you really want it?"

"Yes."

"Well, to-night, perhaps, if we can get away by ourselves."

However, fate willed otherwise.

"Theodora," the doctor said, as they were leaving the dinner-table, that
day; "there's an errand I'd like you to do for me, about four o'clock. I
promised to send some medicine down to a house in Water Street for a
sick baby. Can you take it down? It's nothing catching," he added
reassuringly to his wife.

"I'll go. Can I take Billy?"

"Better not. It's a wretched region for wheels, and you might have an
upset," the doctor advised. "Come to the office, soon after four, and
I'll have it ready. You're getting to be your father's right-hand man,
Teddy." An