anny?"

"Yes; you must keep up your strength. Kiss me."

Nedda kissed a cheek that seemed extraordinarily smooth and soft,
received a kiss in the middle of her own, and, having stayed a second by
the bed, looking down with all her might, went out.

Frances Freeland, in the window, wasted no thoughts, but began to run
over in her mind the exact operations necessary to defeat this illness
of darling Derek's. Her fingers continually locked and interlocked
themselves with fresh determinations; her eyes, fixed on imaginary
foods, methods of washing, and ways of keeping him quiet, had an almost
fanatical intensity. Like a good general she marshalled her means of
attack and fixed them in perfect order. Now and then she gazed into her
bag, making quite sure that she had everything, and nothing that was
new-fangled or liable to go wrong. For into action she never brought any
of those patent novelties that delighted her soul in times of peace. For
example, when she herself had pneumonia and no doctor, for two months,
it was well known that she had lain on her back, free from every kind
of remedy, employing only courage, nature, and beef tea, or some such
simple sustenance.

Having now made her mental dispositions, she got up without sound and
slipped off a petticoat that she suspected of having rustled a little
when she came in; folding and popping it where it could not be suspected
any more, she removed her shoes and put on very old velvet slippers. She
walked in these toward the bed, listening to find out whether she could
hear herself, without success. Then, standing where she could see
when his eyes opened, she began to take stock. That pillow wasn't very
comfortable! A little table was wanted on both sides, instead of on one.
There was no odorator, and she did not see one of those arrangements!
All these things would have to be remedied.

Absorbed in this reconnoitring, she failed to observe that darling Derek
was looking at her through eyelashes that were always so nice and black.
He said suddenly, in that faint and cheerful voice:

"All right, Granny; I'm going to get up to-morrow."

Frances Freeland, whose principle it was that people should always be
encouraged to believe themselves better than they were, answered. "Yes,
darling, of course; you'll be up in no time. It'll be delightful to see
you in a chair to-morrow. But you mustn't talk."

Derek sighed, closed his eyes, and went off into a faint.

It was in mo