reshment of
outdoors, Roberta turned aside some distance from her regular course to
pass through a large botanical park, originally part of a great estate,
and newly thrown open to the public. It was, as yet, less frequented
than any other of the city parks. Much of it, according to the decree of
its donor, a nature lover of discrimination, had been left in a state
not far removed from wildness, and it was toward this portion that
Roberta took her way; experiencing, with each step along a winding,
secluded path she had recently discovered, that sense of escape into
luxurious freedom which comes only after enforced confinement when the
world outside is at its most alluring.

At a point where the path swept high above a long, descending slope, at
the foot of which lay a tiny pool surrounded by thick and beautifully
kept turf, Roberta paused, and after looking about her for a minute to
make sure that there was no one near, turned aside from the path and
threw herself down beside a great clump of ferns, breathing a deep sigh
of restful relief. She sat gazing dreamily down at the pool, in which
was mirrored an exquisite reflection of tree and sky, the scene as
silent and still as though drawn upon canvas. She had many things to
think of, in these days, and a place like this was an ideal one in which
to think.

Was it? Far below her she heard the low hum of a motor. None could come
near her, but the road beneath wound near the pool, though out of sight
except at one point. In spite of this, the girl drew back further into
the shelter of the tall ferns, thinking as she did so that it was the
first time she had seen this remoter part of the park invaded by either
motorist or pedestrian. Watching the point at which the car must appear
she saw it come slowly into sight and stop. There were two occupants, a
man and a boy, but at the distance she could not discern their faces.
The man stepped out, and coming around to the other side of the car put
out his arms and lifted the boy. He did not set him down, but carried
him, seeming to hold him with peculiar care, and brought him through the
surrounding trees and shrubbery to the pool itself, coming, as he did
so, into full view of the unseen eyes above.

Roberta experienced a sudden strange leap of the heart as she saw that
the supple figure of the man was Richard Kendrick's own, and that the
slight frame he bore was that of a crippled child. She could see now the
iron braces on th