r mother was right and wise to advise you not
to part with your capital; but this wouldn't be parting with it,
because I should pay you back in time, you know. It would only be a
loan, and I'd give you the interest on it regularly too; just think
what a relief it would be to me to get those bills paid!" He ran his
fingers up through his hair as he spoke, and gazed at himself in the
glass tragically.

"Any news?" said Beth, after a little pause.

Dan, baffled, turned and began to walk up and down the room. "No,
there never is any news in this confounded hole," he answered, venting
his irritation on the place. "Oh, by the way, though, I am forgetting.
I was at the Pettericks' to-day. That girl Bertha is not getting on as
I should like."

"The hysterical one?" said Beth.

"Ye--yes," he answered, hesitating. "The one who threatened to be
hysterical at one time. But that's all gone off. Now she's just weak,
and she should have electricity; but I can't be going there every day
to apply it--takes too much time: so I suggested to her people that
she should come here for a while, as a paying patient, you know."

"And is she coming?" Beth said, rather in dismay.

"Yes, to-morrow," he replied. "I said you'd be delighted; but you must
write and say so yourself, just for politeness' sake. It will be a
good thing for you too, you know. You are too much alone, and she'll
be a companion for you. She's not half a bad girl."

"Shall I be obliged to give her much of my time?" Beth asked
lugubriously.

"Oh dear, no! She'll look after herself," Dr. Maclure cheerfully
assured her. "I'll hire a piano for her. Must launch out a little on
these occasions, you know. It's setting a sprat to catch a whale."

The piano arrived that afternoon. Beth wished Dan had let her choose
it; but a piano of any kind was a delight. She had not had one since
her marriage. Dan had said at first that a piano was a luxury which
they must not think of when they could not afford the necessaries; and
a luxury he had considered it ever since.

Bertha Petterick was not the kind of person that Beth would have
chosen for a companion, and she dreaded her coming; but before Bertha
had been in the house a week she had so enlivened it that Beth
wondered she had ever objected to her. Bertha fawned upon Beth from
the first, and was by way of looking up to her, and admiring her
intellect. She was four or five years older than Beth, but gave
herself no airs on that a