itating for a moment.
Miss Williams is behaving like a brick, and she had planned it all
beforehand, too. Do you suppose she would have taken a house, if she
had not meant you and Dot to go too?"

"But, Marcus," she pleaded, "I do not really need the change; you only
said yourself the other day that I had never looked so well."

"Yes, and Eastbourne will enable you to keep well," he returned,
cheerfully. "Think of a month of sea breezes; does not your maternal
heart swell at the idea of Dot in a big sun-bonnet, stumping over the
beach with her spade and bucket? Why, you and Miss Williams will be as
happy as the day is long."

"Oh, no; not without you, Marcus," returned Olivia, tenderly. "Do you
think any enjoyment would be perfect without my husband?" But as
Marcus quietly reasoned with her, she yielded at last with a good grace.

"I could not well refuse, Aunt Madge, could I?" she said to her usual
confidante, "when Greta wanted me so; and then it will do baby so much
good. Marcus declares that Martha will manage all right, and that he
will not be dull; and he has promised to spend a whole week with us if
he can. And really, it is so very, very kind of Greta, and she is so
happy about our coming."

"You are a wise woman, Livy," replied Aunt Madge. "And I am proud of
you, and so is Marcus, for we both of us know you are making a brave
effort. Deb shall give Martha a helping hand, now and then, when I can
spare her. And Marcus has promised to have a cup of tea and chat with
me sometimes on his way home from the Models. By-the-bye, when do Mr.
Gaythorne and Mr. Alwyn return?" But Olivia could not answer this
question.

Galvaston House would not be ready for them until the end of July. She
knew that in his last letter to Marcus, Alwyn had spoken of their going
on to Scarborough. He had given a good account of his father, he was
less feeble and walked better; but Bournemouth was too relaxing, and
they both felt the need of more bracing air.

"I shall keep him away until September, unless he turns restless," he
had finished, and Marcus had strongly commended this.

Greta sometimes heard from Alwyn. He wrote to her from time to time,
and she would read his letters to Olivia.

The house that she had taken at Eastbourne was charmingly situated.
From the windows they had a view of the sea, and Beachy Head in the
distance. Marcus took them down and settled them in, and after the
first few days Olivia go