the evenings we shall be in the library. Ah, you are laughing,
because I have thought it all out in this matter-of-fact way, but I
assure you I hardly slept last night." And then by mutual consent they
began on the mysteries of the _trousseau_, and they had not half
finished when Olivia looked at the clock and declared that she had
stayed too long.

"The world goes up and the world goes down and the sunshine follows the
rain," says the old song, and human life is certainly made up of
passing clouds and gleams of sunshine.

While Alwyn superintended the decorations of the new rooms at Galvaston
House, and brought his artistic taste to bear on every petty detail for
the use of his lady-love, and while Greta busied herself over her
_trousseau_, Dr. Luttrell was engaged from morning to night among his
patients.

With the damp, foggy days of November had come the dreaded epidemic,
influenza. All the doctors were overworked, and more than one of them
succumbed to the malady,--amongst them Dr. Bevan.

Marcus, who had been devoting himself to his poor patients, suddenly
found the charge of a large practice thrown on him, and had scarcely
time to take his meals. For a few days Dr. Bevan was extremely ill,
and even when a short change had recruited his health it was evident
that he would never be able to do the same amount of work again.

"He has been overworking himself for years," Mrs. Bevan said to Marcus,
with tears in her eyes; "but he would never spare himself, and now Dr.
Randolph says that this utter breakdown is the result. Oh, it is all
very well for him to say that it is better to wear out than rust out,
but if a man has a wife and children he has no right to risk his life
in this way. It might not hurt a younger man to rise from his bed
night after night in the depths of winter, but for my husband it is
simply suicidal. When he gets well he must and shall have a partner.
What is the use of waiting until Wilfred is ready to come into the
practice," for Wilfred Bevan, the eldest son, was at that time walking
the hospitals. And here Mrs. Bevan, with her comely face looking quite
worn and aged with anxiety, hurried away to sit with her husband.

Olivia had her own private anxieties. Those long solitary days were
very trying to her, but she never dared be long absent from home lest
she should miss one of Marcus's flying visits. His meals were taken at
any odd hour, but if he came in for a minute on his mor