er
that his hand might not fail, that his nerves might be like steel--she
felt as if her heart were beating with his to uphold him, as if she
could bear him on the wings of love and be his talisman against harm.

Yet in front of her was the girl he was to marry, laughing lightly up
into the eyes of a boy, unconscious of her lover's need, unconscious of
everything except that she was young and free from care--and that the
morning world was beautiful!

CHAPTER VIII

THE EMPTY HOUSE

When the doctor came that night he was tired. The day had been a hard
one, and he felt weighed down by the woes of those weak folk who bore so
heavily on his strength.

He found Bettina alone. Diana and Sophie had gone to play bridge across
the harbor, and only Delia in the garden and Peter Pan on the porch
remained for chaperonage.

Bettina greeted her betrothed soberly, and held up her face to be
kissed. "I said things about you yesterday," she confessed, as she and
Anthony settled themselves on the porch where they could look out upon
the lights. "I said things about you to Diana, and afterward we went to
the Pirate House with Justin Ford for lunch, and I flirted with him----"

"What did you say about me?"

"That I hated your surgery--that it seemed dreadful."

He had been smiling, but he grew grave at once.

"You can't separate me from my work, child; you must take us together."

"Of course; I know that now. Diana was talking to me after we came home
from our ride. She told me some of the wonderful things you had done,
and of how people almost said their prayers to you."

"Not quite that--but it's my reward that so many of my patients are my
friends because I have helped them."

"And Diana said that if I loved you I'd be glad--to let you--cut people
up."

In spite of himself he laughed. She was irresistible.

"I shan't exact that of you. But at least you must not worry."

"And I won't have to live there?" anxiously.

"Where?"

"At the sanatorium?"

"Of course not. You'll live over there."

He pointed to a jutting rock on the top of which a big house loomed
white in the moonlight.

"There? Oh, I'd love to go over it. Couldn't we, now?"

He hesitated. "Perhaps it would be better to wait till there are
others." Then, seeing her disappointment, he agreed. "Well, if Delia
will come too."

"Delia?"

"To open the rooms." He had not the heart to tell her how sharp were the
tongues of the gossips of the litt