se of. Might I ask who--but perhaps you'd rather not tell me?"

"No, Doctor Morris, I'd rather tell you; I've sent for you to tell you,
and it isn't so much that I blame him, poor young man, for it was all
managed between his mother and Beatrice, all, from the very first, and
it's my firm belief that he had neither part nor parcel in it. I did
what I could, as in duty bound, to give him his chances, but those
designers were too many for me."

"You don't mean," said the doctor--he really did not concern himself
much about Northbury gossip, and no rumors of Matty's flirtations had
reached him--"You don't mean Captain Bertram? Why, I have just heard he
is engaged to Beatrice. You can't mean Captain Bertram? Impossible."

"I do mean Captain Bertram, doctor. No more and no less. And I'll thank
you not again to mention the name of that siren, Beatrice, in my
presence. Now if you'll come upstairs, I'll show you the poor blighted
child."

Mrs. Bell had insisted on Matty's staying in bed. After the first awful
shock of Mrs. Butler's news had subsided, she had made up her mind that
the only _role_ left to her daughter was that of the dying martyr.
All the town should know that Beatrice had robbed her friend, and that
this young and innocent friend was now at death's door.

Alice and Sophy were both in the room with their sister, and they were
expatiating very loudly on what they considered "ma's cruelty."

"You know perfectly, Matty, that he never cared for you," remarked the
candid Sophy. "It was all ma's folly from first to last."

"First to last," echoed Alice.

"And you're not really ill," pursued Sophy. "You slept very sound all
last night."

"And snored," continued Alice.

"Only ma will make a fuss, one way or other," proceeded Sophy. "Now
you're to be the forsaken one, and what ma would like would be for your
funeral bell to toll the day Bee has her wedding chimes."

"And we all love Bee," said Alice.

"And we'd like to go to her wedding," said Sophy. "Wouldn't you, Matty?
Say, now, if you were going to have a new white muslin for it?"

It was at this juncture that the doctor and Mrs. Bell entered the room.

For a blighted invalid Matty did not look pale, and the doctor, who
quickly discovered that there was no broken heart in the case, ordered
his _regime_ with a certain dry sense of humor, anything but
comforting to the poor little victim.

"Miss Matty requires rest," he said. "Absolute rest. And freedom