this young man--" he indicated Robert, "has been showing me the
colored supplement of the paper. I didn't have any word from you, Miss
Paget," he went on, "so I took the chance of finding you. And your
mother has assured me that I will not put her out by staying to have
luncheon with you."

"Oh, that's nice!" Margaret said mechanically, trying to dislodge
Robert from the most comfortable chair by a significant touch of her
fingers on his small shoulder. Robert perfectly understood that she
wanted the chair, but continued in absorbed study of the comic
supplement, merely wriggling resentfully at Margaret's touch.
Margaret, at the moment, would have been glad to use violence on the
stubborn, serene little figure. When he was finally dislodged, she sat
down, still flushed from her walk and the nervousness Doctor Tenison's
arrival caused her, and tried to bring the conversation into a normal
channel. But an interruption occurred in the arrival of Harry and
Julie in the runabout; the little boys swarmed down to examine it.
Julie, very pretty, with a perceptible little new air of dignity, went
upstairs to freshen hair and gown, and Harry, pushing his straw hat
back the better to mop his forehead, immediately engaged Doctor
Tenison's attention with the details of what sounded to Margaret
like a particularly uninteresting operation, which he had witnessed
the day before.

Utterly discouraged, and acutely wretched, Margaret presently slipped
away, and went into the kitchen, to lend a hand with the dinner
reparations if help was needed. The room presented a scene if possible
a little more confused than that of the day before, and was certainly
hotter. Her mother, flushed and hurried, in a fresh but rather
unbecoming gingham, was putting up a cold supper for the younger boys,