shudder. "Oh, Jim, I'm so glad
you're a doctor," she added weakly, clutching his arm, "and so cold
blooded and reliable!"

"I'm glad I was here," Jim answered simply. "Hello, look at poor little
Miss Page! She's fainted!"

CHAPTER VIII

It was Christmas time before Julia saw Doctor Studdiford again, and then
it was but for a few minutes. Christmas Eve was wet and blowy out of
doors, but the assembly hall of The Alexander looked warm and bright;
there were painfully made garlands of green looped about the windows,
bells of red paper hung from all the chandeliers, and on the stage an
enormous Christmas tree glittered with colour and light. Six hundred
people were crowded into the room, more than half of them children.
Babies twisted and climbed on the laps of their radiant mothers, small
girls and boys everywhere were restless with excitement and
anticipation. Miss Toland only appeared at intervals, spending most of
the afternoon with a few chosen guests in the reception hall, but Julia
was everywhere at once. She wore a plain white linen gown, with a bit of
holly in her hair and on her breast, and whether she was marshalling
small girls into groups, stopping to admire a new baby, meeting the
confectioner's men and their immense freezers at the draughty side door,
talking shyly with the directors in Miss Toland's room, or consoling
some weeping infant in the hall, she was followed by admiring eyes.

At three o'clock the general restlessness visibly increased, and the air
in the hall, between steaming wet garments and perspiring humanity,
became almost insufferable. Julia experimentally opened a door and let
in a wet blast of air, but this was too drastic, and her eyes were
brought back from a wistful study of the high windows by a voice that
said:

"Merry Christmas! Give me a stick, and I'll do it for you!"

The girl found her hand in Doctor Studdiford's, and their eyes met.

"I didn't know you were here!" said Julia, in swift memory of their last
meeting.

"Just come." He looked at her, all kindliness. "How goes it?"

"Finely," Julia answered. When he had opened a window, he followed her
across the room. "I may stay near you, mayn't I?"

"I am just going to begin," Julia said, taking her place at the piano,
and facing the room across the top of it. Her small person seemed
suddenly fired with authority. She struck a full chord. "Children!" she
said. "_Children_! Who is talking? Some one is still talking!