oving lift of her eyebrows and saw a sparkle of defiant
mischief dancing in her sister's blue eyes--"just tell him, please,"
Bella proceeded with a toss of her head, "that my physician has
ordered me to take an auto ride today as the only means of saving my
life!"

It was mid-April and the very air thrilled with the hurry and promise
of the spring that was making ready to leap at a single bound--would
it be tomorrow, in three days, next week?--from swelling bud and
bronzing tree into full flower and leafage. As Henrietta hastened down
the street beneath budding trees busy at their yearly miracle and past
little green lawns with their beds of crocuses and snowdrops and
tulips, the splendid caressing sunshine bathed her in its gaiety, the
smell of freshly turned earth challenged her to buoyant mood and the
singing and fluttering and twittering of birds called her to equal
delight in the radiant season. But all was not well with her world and
she was more conscious of the anxiety in her heart than of the call of
the spring that was storming at her senses.

True, she could begin to look forward now with reasonable surety, she
told herself, to the last payment, in a very few months, upon their
cottage with its little lawn and garden, and that would make sure,
whatever might happen, a home for her mother. Bella would probably
marry within a year the young physician to whom she had been engaged
so long. They had waited for his graduation from the medical school of
Harvard and now he wanted to be sure of a good enough practice to feel
warranted in marrying. The delay had been necessary, too, on Bella's
part, for her help in the care of their mother had been indispensable.
But their improving financial prospects had acted like a magic draught
upon Mrs. Marne and now, as she felt more and more assured of
Henrietta's ability and success, she was rapidly growing so much
better and stronger that she would soon be able to take care of their
housekeeping and leave Bella free to marry as soon as her fiance could
offer her a home.

But Henrietta was so anxious about other things that these untangling
perplexities gave her small comfort. Her sisterly caution told her it
was not prudent for Isabella to go so frequently with Felix Brand in
his automobile. Twice since Brand's return from his last absence had
she found, when she reached home at the end of the day, that Bella had
just returned from a long drive, wherein Brand's machine had