r.

"It isn't your age I'm objecting to," Marian explained; "it's my own.
Merry's engagement makes me realize it."

"She and I are going to make you forget that you have any age at all,"
Huntington declared.--"But when you interrupted me I was going to speak
of a really important matter.--We mustn't be unmindful of poor Hamlen."

"No, indeed," Marian replied seriously. "Happiness is selfish, isn't it,
in making us temporarily forgetful? Poor Philip!"

"We are doing him no injustice," he reassured her; "in fact I think the
news I can take will please him. But I want you and Merry to go back to
Boston with me."

"Whatever you think is wise shall be done," she acquiesced, "but
wouldn't it be better for you to go ahead to prepare him for our
coming?"

"That is by far the wiser plan," Huntington assented promptly.

"Take me with you, Monty," Merry whispered; "I wish we never need be
separated again."

"Stay here, sweetheart, and plan out with the dear mother how soon that
day may be. I have been waiting too long already!"

* * * * *

The nurse met Huntington as he entered the door, and replied to the
question his face asked sooner than his lips.

"There is a remarkable improvement," she announced cheerfully. "The
doctor was here this morning, and left word for you that the progress is
beyond his understanding."

"Splendid!" he cried. "Where shall I find Hamlen?

"In the library, Mr. Huntington; it is all I can do to persuade him to
go anywhere else."

Huntington mounted the stairs two steps at time. "Hamlen!" he cried,
"where are you?"

"Here!" a well-contained voice replied as he entered the room, "in your
library, sitting in your favorite chair, eating your food, drinking your
rum--in short, exercising every prerogative a man can assume who has
unfettered himself from worldly responsibilities, and awaits the command
of his master."

"You certainly are better," Huntington exclaimed, looking at him
critically, astonished by the tone of his remark.

"Except for my weakness," Hamlen answered, holding out his hand, "better
than I've been in all my life."

"You amaze me!" Huntington exclaimed. "I hoped for an improvement, but
this return to more than your best self--"

"I've fought the fight, my friend, and this is the result."

"It is a positive triumph!" Huntington drew a chair beside the patient,
and regarded him with an expression of mystified gratification. "What in