peace in all things had suffered
acutely from the same suspense that had wrought the doctor to his
wretched fever of anxiety. It had been a time of torment for
everybody--everybody was agreed on that; and Mrs. Sandworth had felt
that life in the same house with Lydia's godfather had given her more
than her share of misery.

On this dark November evening she was so tired that every inch of her
soft plumpness ached. She had not prospered in her shopping. Things had
not matched. She let herself into the front door with a sigh of relief
at finding the hall empty. She looked cautiously into the doctor's study
and drew a long breath, peeped into the parlor and, almost smiling, went
on cheerfully upstairs to her room. From afar, she saw the welcoming
flicker of the coal fire in her grate, and felt a glow of surprised
gratitude to the latest transient from the employment agency who was now
occupying her kitchen. She did not often get one that was thoughtful
about keeping up fires when nobody was at home. It would be delicious to
get off her corset and shoes, let down her hair--there he was, bolt
upright before the fire, his back to the door. She took in the
significance of his tense attitude and prepared herself for the worst,
sinking into a chair, letting her bundles slide at various tangents from
her rounded surface, and surveying her brother with the utmost
unresignation. "Well, what is it now?" she asked.

He had not heard her enter, and now flashed around, casting in her face
like a hard-thrown missile, "Lydia's engaged."

All Mrs. Sandworth's lassitude vanished. She flung herself on him in a
wild outcry of inquiry--"Which one? Which one?"

He answered her angrily, "Which do you suppose? Doesn't a steam-roller
make some impression on a rose?"

"Oh!" she cried, enlightened; and then, with widespread solemnity,
"Well, think--of--that!"

"Not if I can help it," groaned the doctor.

"But that's not fair," his sister protested a moment later as she took
in the rest of his speech.

"Heaven knows it's not," he agreed bitterly.

She stared. "I mean that Paul hasn't been nearly so steam-rollery as
usual."

The doctor rubbed his face furiously, as though to brush off a
disagreeable clinging web. "He hasn't had to be. There have been plenty
of other forces to do his rolling for him."

"If you mean her father--you know he's kept his hands off
_religiously_."

"He has that, damn him!" The doctor raged about the room.