r:

"Here, Helena! Wait a minute!"

There was a quick, startled little exclamation from the doorway, and
Helena came out hurriedly from the porch.

"Who's there?" she cried in a low voice. "Oh"--as they stepped into
view--"you, Doc, and the Flopper! What were you doing behind that
trellis?"

"Keeping out of Thornton's road," said Madison. "So he's going away, eh?
What for?"

"Business," replied Helena. "Has to go to some meeting in Chicago--he's
leaving his wife and the private car here. What did you come at this
hour for?"

"Lines for the next act," said Madison; "but the Flopper's got it all,
and he'll put you on." He stepped toward Helena and slipped his arm
around her waist. "Come on, it's early yet, let's go for a little walk.
The Flopper'll excuse us, and I--"

"I thought you said," Helena interrupted, disengaging herself quietly,
"that we had to play the game to the limit and take no chances."

"Well, so I did," admitted Madison, and his arm crept around her again;
"but I guess we've earned a little holiday and--"

"'Nix on that,' I think was what you said," said Helena with a queer
little laugh, drawing away again. "And I really think you were right,
Doc--we ought to play the game without breaking the rules, and
so--good-night"--and she turned and ran from him into the cottage.

Madison stared after her in a sort of helpless state of chagrin.

"Mabbe," said the Flopper, "mabbe she's lonely."

--XV--

A MIRACLE OVERDONE

Helena sat in the Patriarch's room, and her piquant little face was
pursed up into a scowl so daintily grim as to be almost ludicrous. The
Patriarch, in his armchair, had been scrawling words upon the slate all
evening--and she had been wiping them off! He scrawled another now--and
mechanically, without looking at it, by way of answer she pressed his
arm to appease him.

She had been restless all day, and she was restless now. What had
induced her to treat Madison the way she had the night before? Pique,
probably. No; it wasn't pique. It was just getting back at him--and he
deserved it. He hadn't seemed to mind it much, though--he had only
laughed and teased her about it that morning when he had joined the
Patriarch and herself in their walk along the beach.

With her chin in her hands, she began to study the Patriarch through
half closed eyes--deaf and dumb and blind--and somehow it all seemed
excruciatingly funny and she wanted to laugh hysterically. He seemed to
s