s housekeeper was resting after a busy days work. "I
shall never forget how good you've been to me, and I hope you won't
forget me."

"Forget you!" ejaculated Mrs. Fields, her spare, strong hand grasping
tight the slender one held out to her. "Well, there ain't much danger of
that, nor of anybody else's forgetting you. I've been about as pleased
as the doctor and Miss Charlotte to see you pick up. You don't look like
the same girl that came here last fall."

"I'm sure I don't feel much like her. Ever so much of it is certainly
due to your good cooking, Mrs. Fields."

"It's so hard to take leave of you all," said Evelyn, on the porch,
where the others were assembled. "I'd almost like to slip away without a
word--only that would look so ungrateful. And I'm the most grateful girl
alive."

"You needn't say good-by to me," said Doctor Forester, "for I'm going as
far as Washington with you." He smiled at the joy which flashed into her
face.

"Oh, are you really?" she cried.

"You needn't say good-by to me, either," said Frederic Forester, as she
turned to him, standing next to his father, "for I'm going, too,"

"I think I'll go along," said Doctor Churchill.

"Will you take me?" Charlotte was smiling at Evelyn's bewildered face.

"If Charlotte goes, I shall, too," supplemented Celia.

Evelyn looked at them. Surely enough, although in the hurry she had not
noticed it before, they were all in travelling dress. She had known they
had meant to go as far as the city station with her; she saw now that
they were fully equipped for the journey. And Washington was nearly
twenty hours away!

"You dear people!" murmured Evelyn, and rather blindly cast herself into
Mrs. Birch's outstretched arms.

There was only one thing lacking to her peace of mind. Jeff had not
appeared to bid her good-by. Charlotte observed that Evelyn's voice
trembled a little when she said, "Where's Jeff? Will you tell him
good-by for me?"

Charlotte answered, "He won't fail, dear. He'll surely be at the
station."

But when they reached the station no Jeff was there. Nobody seemed to
notice, for the men of the party were busy looking after various details
of the trip. Celia was explaining to Evelyn and Lucy how it had all come
about.

"Doctor Forester was so upset and sorry over your going," she said,
"that he went to thinking up excuses to go along. He remembered an
important medical convention in Washington, and persuaded Andy that he
could g