ay while his mother
was asleep, in case she should ask for him when she woke up, and
she slept rather longer than usual.

"She may have been trying to do too much lately," said he, with a
beautiful faith in some mysterious activities practised by the Goody
unseen. Sally cultivated this faith also, to the best of her ability,
but she can hardly be said to have embraced it. The way in which she
and her mother lent themselves to it was, nevertheless, edifying.

"You mustn't let her overdo it, doctor," said Rosalind, seriously
believing herself truthful. And Sally, encouraged by her evident
earnestness, added, "And make her take plenty of nourishment. That's
half the battle."

Whereupon Laetitia, swept, as it were, into the vortex of a creed,
found it in her to say, "As long as she doesn't get low." It was not
vigorous, and lacked completion, but it reassured and enforced. By the
time the little performance was done every one in the room believed
that Mrs. Vereker did down the stairs, or scoured out saucepans, or
at least dusted. Even her son believed, so forcibly was the unanimity.
Perhaps there was a taint of the incredulous in the minds of Fenwick
and Bradshaw. But each thought the other was heart-whole, and neither
suspected himself of insincerity.

Sally was curious to know exactly what lines the Octopus had operated
on. That would do later, though. She would get Prosy by himself, and
make him tell her all about it. In the course of time tea died a
natural death. Fenwick indulged in a yawn and a great shake, and
remembered that he had no end of letters to answer. Mr. and Mrs.
Julius Bradshaw suddenly thought, for no reasonable reason, that they
ought to be getting back. But they didn't really go home. They went
for a walk landward; as it was so windy, instead--remember that
they were only in the third week of their honeymoon! Sally, with
Talleyrand-like diplomacy, achieved that she and Dr. Conrad should
go for another walk in another direction. The sea was getting up and
the glass was going down, and it would be fun to go and see the waves
break over the jetty. So said Sally, and Dr. Conrad thought so too,
unequivocally. They walked away in the big sea-wind, fraught with
a great inheritance from the Atlantic of cool warmth and dry moisture.
And if you don't know what that means, you know mighty little of the
ocean in question.

Rosalind watched them through the window, closed perforce, and saw
them disappear rou