that's coming off."

"Give Rose our love; and tell Mrs. Adding that I'll come round and see
her to-morrow before she starts."

"Oh! I'm afraid you can't, Mrs. March. They're to start at six in the
morning."

"They are! Then we must go and see them tonight. We'll be there almost
as soon as you are."

March went up to their rooms with, his wife, and she began on the
stairs:

"Well, my dear, I hope you realize that your laughing so gave us
completely away. And what was there to keep grinning about, all
through?"

"Nothing but the disingenuous, hypocritical passion of love. It's always
the most amusing thing in the world; but to see it trying to pass itself
off in poor old Kenby as duty and humanity, and disinterested affection
for Rose, was more than I could stand. I don't apologize for laughing; I
wanted to yell."

His effrontery and his philosophy both helped to save him; and she said
from the point where he had side-tracked her mind: "I don't call it
disingenuous. He was brutally frank. He's made it impossible to treat
the affair with dignity. I want you to leave the whole thing to me, from
this out. Now, will you?"

On their way to the Spanischer Hof she arranged in her own mind for Mrs.
Adding to get a maid, and for the doctor to send an assistant with her
on the journey, but she was in such despair with her scheme that she
had not the courage to right herself when Mrs. Adding met her with the
appeal:

"Oh, Mrs. March, I'm so glad you approve of Mr. Kenby's plan. It does
seem the only thing to do. I can't trust myself alone with Rose, and Mr.
Kenby's intending to go to Schevleningen a few days later anyway. Though
it's too bad to let him give up the manoeuvres."

"I'm sure he won't mind that," Mrs. March's voice said mechanically,
while her thought was busy with the question whether this scandalous
duplicity was altogether Kenby's, and whether Mrs. Adding was as
guiltless of any share in it as she looked. She looked pitifully
distracted; she might not have understood his report; or Kenby might
really have mistaken Mrs. March's sympathy for favor.

"No, he only lives to do good," Mrs. Adding returned. "He's with Rose;
won't you come in and see them?"

Rose was lying back on the pillows of a sofa, from which they would
not let him get up. He was full of the trip to Holland, and had already
pushed Kenby, as Kenby owned, beyond the bounds of his very general
knowledge of the Dutch language, which Rose ha