the last minute, a good deal of
rather flat, well-meant chaffing, proffered with the most entire
unconcern as to the expressed purpose of their journey; and then the
descent through long, mirrored, softly carpeted corridors to the
classic beauty of the Grecian temple where the busy men, with tired
eyes, came and went hurriedly, treading heavily on their heels.
Outside was the cab, Arnold extremely efficient in browbeating the
driver as to the stowing away of bags, more kisses, in the general
cloud of which Arnold pecked shyly at Sylvia's ear and Judith's chin;
then the retreating vehicle with Arnold standing up, a tall, ungainly
figure, waving a much-jointed hand.

After it was out of sight the three watchers looked at each other in a
stale moment of anticlimax.

"Arnold's horrid, isn't he?" said Judith thoughtfully.

"Why, I _like_ him!" opposed Sylvia.

"Oh, I _like_ him, all right," said Judith.

Then both girls looked at their mother. What next ...? They were not
to have gone back to La Chance until the next night. Would this change
of plans alter their schedule? Mrs. Marshall saw no reason why it
should. She proposed a sightseeing expedition to a hospital. Miss
Lindstroem, the elderly Swedish woman who worked among the destitute
negroes of La Chance, had a sister who was head-nurse in the biggest
and newest hospital in Chicago, and she had written very cordially
that if her sister's friends cared to inspect such an institution, she
was at their service. Neither of the girls having the slightest idea
of what a hospital was like, nor of any other of the sights in the
city which they might see instead, no objection was made to this plan.

They made inquiries of a near-by policeman and found that they could
reach it by the elevated. Their encounter with this metropolitan
facility for transportation turned out to be among the most memorable
bits of sightseeing of their trip. Neither of the girls had ever
imagined anything so lurid as the Saturday noon jam, the dense, packed
throngs waiting on the platforms and bursting out through the opened
doors like beans from a split bag, their places instantly taken by
an even greater crowd, perspiring, fighting grimly for foot-room and
expecting and receiving no other kind. Judith was fired contagiously
with the spirit about her, set her teeth, thrust out her elbows,
shoved, pushed, grunted, fought, all with a fresh zest in the
performance which gave her an immense advantag