the first time after his return to Dinwiddie; and a sudden anger seized
him because she was letting herself break, because she was so needlessly
sacrificing her youth and her beauty.

An hour later she got up and dressed herself, with the feeling that she
had not rested a minute during the night. Harry was listless and fretful
when he awoke, and while she put on his clothes, she debated with
herself whether or not she should summon old Doctor Fraser from around
the corner. When his lesson hour came, he climbed into her lap and went
to sleep with his hot little head on her shoulder, and though he seemed
better by evening, she was still so anxious about him that she forgot
that she had promised Abby to go with them to Atlantic City until Oliver
came in at dusk and reminded her.

"Aren't you going, Virginia?" he inquired, as he hunted in the closet
for his bag which she had not had time to pack.

"I can't, Oliver. Harry isn't well. He has been unlike himself all day,
and I am afraid to leave him."

"He looks all right," he remarked, bending over the child in Virginia's
lap. "Does anything hurt you, Harry?"

"He doesn't seem to know exactly what it is," answered Virginia, "but if
he isn't well by morning, I'll send for Doctor Fraser."

"He's got a good colour, and I believe he's as well as he ever was,"
replied Oliver, while a curious note of hostility sounded in his voice.
"There's nothing the matter with the boy," he added more positively
after a minute. "Aren't you coming, Virginia?"

She looked up at him from the big rocking-chair in which she sat with
Harry in her arms, and as she did so, both became conscious that the
issue had broadened from a question of her going to Atlantic City into a
direct conflict of wills. The only thing that could make her oppose him
had happened for the first time since her marriage. The feminine impulse
to yield was overmatched by the maternal impulse to protect. She would
have surrendered her soul to him for the asking; but she could not
surrender, even had she desired to do so, the mother love which had
passed into her from out the ages before she had been, and which would
pass through her into the ages to come after her.

"Of course, if the little chap were really suffering, I'd be as anxious
about staying as you are," said Oliver impatiently; "but there's nothing
the matter. You're all right, aren't you, Harry?"

"Yes, I'm all right," repeated Harry, yawning and snuggling clos