ly. Each day I went to the hospital and
sat for a brief fifteen or twenty minutes by Helen's side. She was
fully conscious and I thought I could see at times that there were
questions she wanted to ask me. Remembering the doctor's emphatic
instructions, I said very little, never asking any questions, only
telling her a few of the unimportant happenings of the town. She
seemed uninterested and lay apathetically quiescent except when some
apparently perplexing question corrugated her brows. They told her of
Jim's death early in the week, but far from being shocked, she had
appeared almost indifferent, showing only too plainly how little he
meant in her life. Woods she never referred to.

Mary, of course, was her devoted slave, hardly leaving her bedside, and
in our daily meetings at the hospital, I fell more and more in love
with her, if such a thing were possible. Once when I was coming up the
corridor with a large bunch of flowers, I met her outside Helen's door.
As she took the blooms from me, she reached up and patted my cheek.

"Bupps, you're a darling to bring these lovely flowers to Helen every
day. I think you're quite the nicest brother a girl could have."

"If you think that, why won't you have me?" I asked.

"I think I will----" she answered, smiling, "for a brother."

She started to open the door, but I grasped her hand.

"Mary, do be serious! You know I love you."

She haughtily drew herself up in all the majesty of her five feet three
inches and commanded: "Unhand me, villain! I spurn your tempting
offer." Then earnestly, "Let me go, Bupps! I've got to put these
flowers away."

With a quick wrench she freed herself and was gone, leaving me half
sick with love of her.

After the first sensational extra, the newspapers had said but little
of Helen's and Frank's indictment. Somehow I was confident that Helen
would be able to clear herself. Woods had published a statement in
which he said he would be able to prove where he was every minute of
the evening of the tragedy, and so had had no difficulty in finding
bail. In fact, since the indictment, he seemed to have gained a good
deal of sympathy and popularity. Every one who knew of his devotion to
Helen felt that he had indicted himself to try to save her.

One morning, about a week after my interview with the be-spectacled
interne, I met Doctor Forbes as he was coming from Helen's room and he
gave me permission to ask her a few questio