ell; her heart beat fast with sympathy. She laid the lightest of
touches on his arm.

"I know," she said, softly. "Fieldsy told me--a little bit. I'm so
sorry."

He drew a long breath and looked down at her, his eyes searching her
face. "You _are_ a little comrade," he said, and his voice was low and
moved. Then with a quick motion he seized her hands again and they were
off, back down the river. Not so fast as before, and silently, the two
skaters covered the miles, and only as they came within sight of the
crowd of people at the beginning of the course did Doctor Churchill
speak.

"This has been a fine hour, hasn't it?" he said. "Your face looks as if
you had lost all the puckers. Have you?"

"Indeed I have! Haven't you?"

"It has done me a world of good. I was wrought up to a high pitch--now
I'm cool again. I have to go back to the hospital as soon as supper is
over. I shall stay all night."

"When you get back," said Charlotte, "will you telephone me how the case
is doing?"

"May I?" he answered, eagerly.

"Of course you may. I shall be anxious till I know."

"I have no business to add one smallest item of anxiety to your list of
worries," he admitted. "But it seems so good to me to have somebody
care, just now. Fieldsy's a dear soul--I couldn't get on without her,
but--Never mind, that's enough of Andrew Churchill for one afternoon.
Shall we make a big spurt to the finish? Let's show them what skating
is--no little cutting of geometrical spider-webs in a forty-foot
square!"

They drew in with swift, graceful strokes, threaded their course through
the crowd of skaters, and were soon on their way home. Captain Rayburn
and Celia passed them, called back that it was a great day for invalids
and children, and reached home just in time for the doctor to carry
Celia into the little brick house. Charlotte ran to summon her three
brothers, for it was after six o'clock.

Never had an oyster stew such enthusiastic praise. Not an appetite was
lacking, not a spoon flagged. Mrs. Fields, moved to lavish hospitality,
in which she was upheld by the doctor, produced a chicken pie, which had
been originally intended for his dinner alone, and which she had at
first designed, when she proposed the oysters, to keep over until the
morrow. This was flanked by various dishes, impromptu but delectable,
and followed by a round of winter fruit and spongecake--the latter the
pride of the housekeeper's heart, and dear to her mast