roachfully.

'Let me laugh! Oh, you poor boy! If I don't laugh, I'm afraid--I shall
cry!'

CHAPTER XXII.

'THERE IS DANGER--NEAR!'

Women are strange. This has been said before, I know, but it is
doubtful if it is ever said twice with just the same meaning; and it
is always true.

When Miss Jenrys learned that our guard was quite beyond the danger
line, and that he might leave the hospital in a week, she promptly
declared her second visit, in company with her aunt, her last,
assuring him that, while one might disregard Mrs. Grundy when a friend
was so ill as to be upon debatable ground, it would never do to risk
her favour for a rapidly recovering convalescent. 'Besides,' she said
with a smile that was kinder than her words, 'in a few days you will
begin to pay some of the visits you now owe to Aunt Ann and to me.'
And this he did.

When he left the hospital his physician forbade him to attempt
anything more severe than a very short promenade once a day, and a
little sight-seeing, if he choose to do it in a wheeled chair; for the
rest, quiet and much sleep. As to his duties as guard, even the
lightest of these were forbidden him for at least a fortnight.

It is hardly likely that the originators of the Fair City planned to
do just that, or realized at first what they had done, but intentional
or not, the White City was a paradise for lovers.

Those cosy nooks all about Wooded Island, those quiet corners about
the lagoons, with seats invitingly placed; and what snug recesses,
'too small for numbers, roomy for two,' in the great buildings, among
the pagodas, temples, pavilions and lofty inclosures, hospitably
furnished by generous exhibitors; then there were half a hundred and
more buildings, model dwellings, cottages, castles, villas, mansions,
palaces, edifices, State and national, each with open doors, and many
with cosy parlours, reception-rooms, assembly-rooms, where one or two
could find quiet and seclusion in the midst of multitude; and last and
best, there were the beautiful lake, the lake shore, the lagoons, the
skiffs, launches, and the gondolas.

On the first day of his freedom from the hospital our guard tried his
strength moderately, and took counsel with Miss Ross.

On the second day June came 'half-way,' as she expressed it, joining
him upon the Plaza and leaving Miss Ross to my tender mercies, for he
had unblushingly begged an hour of my time--which he stretched to two
hours--that I m