ccount. I
hope that in the meantime you will get back your strength
quickly. Remember that you will have to be very careful for
quite a long time, because a relapse is _an awfully mean
thing_.

Good-by, my dear Gerald. Please accept the very best wishes of

Yours sincerely,
Aurora Hawthorne.

P.S. I did not write four letters and tear three of them up,
like you. I wrote one and corrected it, and here I have copied
it out for you, hoping that in it I have made my meaning as
clear to you as you made yours clear to me in your letter.

CHAPTER XVII

When the latter occurrences had shaken down in Aurora's mind, Gerald's
letter, which she from time to time re-read, impressed her as a most
gentle and reasonable production of his pen, while her own letter,
preserved in the original scribble, appeared to her horrid, cutting, and
uncalled for.

But there was now nothing to do about it. The state of mind created in
her by the whole episode prepared her to welcome with open arms any
diversion, any event which would restore to her self-conceit a little
vitality or lay on her heart a little balm; and so when, at the
psychological moment, Doctor Thomas Bewick surprisingly turned up in
Florence,--it may be remembered that he was Estelle's choice for
Nell,--Nell fell on his neck quite literally, and gave him a full,
sonorous kiss.

"Tom! Tom!" she cried in delight, "how good it is to see you!"

This happened in her formal drawing-room, whither she had gone on the
servant's announcement that a gentleman from America, who had given no
card or name, asked to see her.

Their greeting over, she ran out into the hall, screaming joyfully:

"Hat! Hat! Come down this minute! Hurry up! You'll never guess who's
here!"

In reply to which summons Estelle came hurrying down the stairs with an
innocent, expectant air.

"If it isn't Doctor Bewick!" she exclaimed, without giving herself away
by one false inflection. "Why, Doctor Bewick, this is simply too awfully
nice! What _are_ you doing over here? Who _would_ have
expected to see _you_?"

"Tom," said Aurora, "I was never in my life so glad to see any one. I
didn't know how much I'd missed you till I saw you. You good old thing!
You nice old boy! Aren't you a brick to have come! My soul, my soul! I
didn't know till this minute how tired I am of foreigner