outstretched hand and let it draw her upward to the vacant
seat. "The car is always so full at this hour, and I was longing for the
feeling of the wind against my face."

"It's cool for late August, and you'll get a breeze on the road home
that will refresh you. You haven't touched water or milk in this
plague-stricken district, I hope?"

"No, indeed. Martha warned me a dozen times before I left. How are
things? Any better?"

"No new cases in twenty-four hours, and the old ones well in hand. I'm
getting home earlier to-day than I've done for a month, and hope to have
a few hours off duty. I was planning what to do with them as I came upon
you."

"I should think you could do nothing better with them than to go
home and sleep," she advised, looking up at his face with a critical,
friendly survey of the signs of weariness written plainly there. "You
are worn out, and that means something when one says it of so strong a
man as you."

"I could sleep a week, but I'm not sure that a few hours would more
than aggravate my need. Besides, I shouldn't be at home an hour before
I should be called out again. No, my plans were forming themselves
differently, and now that I've met you they're taking definite shape. I
want--well--suppose I don't tell you! Would you trust me to take you off
on a rest-seeking expedition without explaining what I mean to do?"

"On a 'rest-seeking expedition'?" she repeated. "Doctor Burns, are you
sure you hadn't better go on that alone? Suppose I chatter all the way?"

He smiled. "You're not a chatterer. And I don't want to go alone. I
haven't had a chance for an hour with you for a month, I think. This is
the only way I can get it. Will you go?"

"You provoke my curiosity. Yes, I think I'll go. I've been shopping
all the morning and I deserve a reward of rest, if you're sure you know
where to find it."

He turned the Imp abruptly aside from the boulevard leading out of town
down which they had been speeding. He made a detour of certain side
streets which brought him up before a small side establishment bearing a
sign which set forth an alluring invitation to motoring parties in need
of food. He disappeared therein, and was absent for the space of a full
twenty minutes. When he returned he was followed by a waiter with a
hamper to whose bestowal in the back of the car he looked carefully.

As they sped away again, Burns turned to his companion, a smile of
anticipation on his face, to meet a gl