ave been bound together by a family tie, so
wholly natural seemed their sociable sitting together over the fire.
Sylvia thought with an instant's surprise, "Isn't it odd how close he
has come to seem--as though I'd always, always known him; as though I
could speak to him of anything--nobody else ever seemed that way to
me, nobody!"

She read on from the letter: "'All of us at St. Mary's are feeling
very sore about lawyers. Old Mr. Winthrop had left the hospital
fifteen thousand dollars in his will, and we'd been counting on that
to make some changes in the operating-room and the men's accident ward
that are awfully needed. And now comes along a miserable lawyer who
finds something the matter with the will, and everything goes to that
worthless Charlie Winthrop, who'll probably blow it all in on one
grand poker-playing spree. It makes me tired! We can't begin to keep
up with the latest X-ray developments without the new apparatus, and
only the other day we lost a case, a man hurt in a railroad wreck,
that I know we could have pulled through if we'd been better equipped!
Well, hard luck! But I try to remember Mother's old uncle's motto,
"Whatever else you do, _don't_ make a fuss!" Father has been off for a
few days, speaking before Alumni reunions. He looks very well. Mother
has got her new fruit cellar fixed up, and it certainly is great.
She's going to keep the carrots and parsnips there too. I've just
heard that I'm going to graduate first in my class--thought you might
like to know. Have a good time, Sylvia. And don't let your imagination
get away with you.

"'Your loving sister,

"'JUDITH,'"

"Of all the perfect characterizations!" murmured Page, as Sylvia
finished. "I can actually see her and hear her!"

"Oh, there's nobody like Judith!" agreed Sylvia, falling into a
reverie, her eyes on the fire.

The peaceful silence which ensued spoke vividly of the intimacy
between them.

After a time Sylvia glanced up, and finding her companion's eyes
abstractedly fixed on the floor, she continued to look into his face,
noting its fine, somewhat gaunt modeling, the level line of his brown
eyebrows, the humor and kindness of his mouth. The winter twilight
cast its first faint web of blue shadow into the room. The fire burned
with a steady blaze.

As minute after minute of this hushed, wordless calm continued, Sylvia
was aware that something new was happening to her, that something in
her stirred which had never befor