Then his face grew grave again, as he turned back to Marjorie.
"He's as badly hurt as he can be," he went on. "He'll get over it, but
he'll never be able to do anything more. He hasn't come to his senses
yet, and I wish he needn't, for the present, for he has a hard time
before him," he added, as he rose to meet Louise, who came into the room
just then.

"I'm a little upset to-night," he said apologetically, in answer to her
exclamation about the coldness of his hand. "To be perfectly honest,
this is my first accident case; and it's a very different thing from
seeing people quietly ill in bed, even if you know they can't get well.
I was at the house when they brought him in, and I hope I sha'n't often
have to go through such a scene again."

"Tell me about it," said Louise, with a gentle sympathy which lent a new
grace to her beauty. "I'm not afraid to hear, and perhaps I can do
something for them by and by."

And the doctor told, forgetting himself, and even the charming young
woman before him, as he went on with the story of the mother's frantic
sorrow over her only son, of the boy's half-conscious suffering, and of
the long, helpless life before him. The girl's eyes filled with tears as
she listened, though her pity for the lad was mingled with a new
admiration for the speaker. The tale did not lie entirely in the mere
words describing the accident; but, under all that, it told of the
generous, kindly sympathy of the true doctor, who shrinks from the sight
of pain, even while he gives his life to watching and helping it.

Two weeks later Marjorie was spending a stormy afternoon at the
Burnams', when Ned appeared on the piazza.

"Hullo!" he exclaimed, as he furled his dripping umbrella, and shook
himself out of his rubber coat. "You'd better believe I'm wet. Lou went
off before it rained, and I had to pack her rubbers and umbrella over to
her. It's no joke to walk a mile in such a pour."

"Where is she?" asked Allie, while she hospitably drew up a chair for
her guest.

"Over the creek with that boy of hers. She puts in ever so much time
there, since he's better. She says he's crazy to read and be read to, so
she goes over 'most every day," responded Ned, as he wriggled away from
the too exuberant caresses of Ben.

"How is he getting on?" inquired Marjorie.

"All right, as much as he can. Lou says he's bright and knows a good
deal."

"How kind she's been to him!" said Allie thoughtfully. "And Charlie,
too