at, I knew. He had not the capacity for cruelty
which Harry Underwood possessed. But I was sure it would torture
me more to know that he was disguising his aversion than to see him
openly express it.

XXXIX

HARRY CALLS TO SAY GOOD-BY

Lillian Underwood kept her promise to Dicky that I should suffer no
scar as the result of the burns I received when my dress caught fire
on the night of my dinner.

Never patient had a more faithful nurse than Lillian. She had a cot
placed in my room where she slept at night, and she rarely left my
side.

I found my invalidism very pleasant in spite of the pain and
inconvenience of my burns. Everyone was devoted to my comfort. Even
Mother Graham's acerbity was softened by the suffering I underwent
in the first day or two following the accident, although I soon
discovered that she was actually jealous because Lillian and not she
was nursing me.

"It is the first time in my life that I have ever found my judgment in
nursing set aside as of no value," she said querulously to me one day
when she was sitting with me while Lillian attended to the preparation
of some special dish for me in the kitchen.

"Oh, Mother Graham," I protested, "please don't look at it that way.
You know how careful you have to be about your heart. We couldn't let
you undertake the task of nursing me, it would have been too much for
you."

"Well, if your own mother were alive I don't believe any one could
have kept her from taking care of you," she returned stubbornly.

There was a wistful note in her voice that touched and enlightened
me. Beneath all the crustiness of my mother-in-law's disposition there
must lie a very real regard--I tremulously wondered if I might not
call it love--for me.

My heart warmed toward the lonely, crabbed old woman as it had never
done before. I put out my uninjured hand, clasped hers, and drew her
toward me.

"Mother dear," I said softly, "please believe me, it would be no
different if my own little mother were here. She, of course, would
want to take care of me, but her frailness would have made it
impossible. And I want you to know that I appreciate all your
kindness."

She bent to kiss me.

"I'm a cantankerous old woman, sometimes," she said quaveringly, "but
I am fond of you, Margaret."

She released me so abruptly and went out of the room so quickly that
I had no opportunity to answer her. But I lay back on my pillows,
warm with happiness, filled with gr