d well, Alec--I won't use myself up. But Uncle Timmy is
all we have left--and--oh, please don't talk about it!--I'm so anxious
lest I can't do anything for him when I get there." She conquered a
constriction in her throat, while they waited, for that last phrase had
silenced them. They were all fond of Uncle Timothy--they didn't want to
lose him. In a minute Sally went on cheerfully: "If you'll only write to
me I can stand anything. Tell me all about everything. Oh, here's Max!"

She turned to meet him. He was looking gravely disapproving, as was to
have been expected, but something in the sight of his sister's face made
him refrain from reproaching her for not having consulted him, as he had
intended to do. Besides, the hands of the clock were pointing too nearly
to the time of her departure for him to feel like thrusting upon her the
weight of his displeasure.

Jarvis came back, tickets in hand, and gave them to Sally with the little
purse she had handed him. Announcing that there was no time to lose he
then convoyed the whole party through the door to the trains, using some
influence which he possessed with the blue-capped official thereat to
obtain the favour. So the passengers already in the crowded sleeper were
treated to the somewhat unusual spectacle of a particularly charming girl
being brought aboard her train by a party of four quietly solicitous
young men, even the youngest of them, by virtue of his height and broad
shoulders, counting as a male "grown-up."

Jarvis went off for a hasty interview with the Pullman conductor then
hunted up the porter of Sally's car, the "Lucatia," and gave him certain
instructions, accompanied by a transfer of something which brought a
broad grin to that person's dusky face, with the assertion, "Suah,
sah--I'll make the young lady comf'able--thank you, sah."

He got back to the "Lucatia" only in time to hear the call of "all
aboard," from outside, to see the blue veil surrounded by three
leave-taking brothers bestowing hurried but hearty testimonials of their
affection and bidding her "Take care of yourself," "Write often," and
"Don't kill yourself working," and to push past them as they made for the
door, to say his own good-by. It was easy for the interested
fellow-travellers to see that this young man evidently was not a brother,
for his farewell consisted only of a somewhat prolonged grip of the hand,
his hat off, his eyes searching the blue ones lifted to his with the
e