onths. Mason hadn't the sense to send
him away, and I didn't know he was there until the awful _arpeggios_
began. Then I worked myself into a fever trying to decide whether I
should send him away, whether he would charge twice over if I did,
whether it would be bad for the piano, whether he would be long, whether
I could bear it if I covered my head. At last the strum, strum, on one
note began, and I rang and told Mason to send him away at once, and
_she_ was cross. Half an hour later some one sent a note with, `bearer
waits reply' on the envelope, and I had to sit up and write. The doctor
came at twelve, and said Joyce was perfectly well, but I looked
feverish; couldn't I lie down and rest? I could not look at lunch,
which was just as well, as there was none for me, and Joyce fell off her
high-chair just over my head, and I thought she was killed. She
screamed for an age, and I forgot my own head, thinking of hers; but
afterwards! I cried to myself with sheer pain and misery, and I thought
of your `long, solitary day' with such envy. The afternoon was the same
story, and when Robert came home he was _so_ disappointed to find me
worse! I didn't tell _him_ my experiences; he doesn't see the humour of
them when they affect me, but I said miserably to myself, `some day I'll
tell Vanna, and we'll laugh.' Dear me, what a comfort it is to have a
woman friend!"

Vanna smiled at her affectionately. It was good to hear Jean rattle
away in her old racy fashion, but her skilled eye was quick to note the
signs of fragility in the lovely face, which paled and flushed with such
suspicious rapidity.

"I think Sister Vanna had better apply for the vacant `place,' and take
possession until you are strong. Would you like to have me with you,
dear? We have been having rather a strenuous time lately, and when the
present inmates leave at the end of this week, I should be quite glad to
shut the house and give the staff a rest. It's a poor thing if I give
my life to nursing, and can't wait upon my one friend when she needs me.
Would you like to have me?"

Needless to say, Jean was enchanted at the prospect; so was Robert when
he returned at the close of the day; so also, more inexplicably, was
Piers himself. Vanna had been prepared for expostulations against a
proposal which would leave her less free for his visits, but none came,
and their absence added to the dull weight of oppression which had hung
over her ever since t