discuss things, and give him one of your
dinners. Then for a fine evening at our fireside. He's agreed to stay
overnight. I didn't expect that. He's usually in too much of a hurry to
linger long anywhere."

"He has never seemed in a hurry, when I have seen him," Ellen observed.
"He has such a quiet manner, and such a cool, calm way of looking at one,
I always thought he must have a wonderful command of himself."

"I always envied him that," admitted Red Pepper, stirring his coffee with
a thoughtful air. "I used to wish it were contagious, that splendid calm.
He never loses his head, as I do. Takes plenty of time to consider
everything, and plenty to get ready in. But when he does come to the
point of operating,--he's a wonder. Talk about rapidity and brilliancy!
And he never turns a hair. I've often wanted to count his pulse at a
crisis, when he'd found something unexpected--one of those times that
sends mine racing like a dynamo. He's as cool as a fish--outwardly, at
any rate. Well, it will be jolly to see him. I could hardly get his voice
to sound natural, over the 'phone. It seemed weak and thin. Poor service,
I suppose,--though he had no difficulty in hearing me, apparently."

"Shall I put him in the small guest-room or the large, comfortable one?
Which will appeal to him most, space or a reading-light over his bed?"

"Put him in the big room and give him all the comforts of home. I doubt
if he gets many of the really homelike sort, living alone with servants,
in the old family mansion, since his mother died. I've often wondered why
he hasn't married."

"As you've only just married yourself I should think you would be quite
able to supply a reason," suggested Ellen, with a sparkle of her dark
eyes under their heavy lashes.

"He's had plenty of opportunities. Many fair ladies have made it easy for
him to propose to them. But he's not the sort that kindles into flame at
the sight of a match in the distance. Yet he's by no means a cold-blooded
proposition. His heart is as warm as anybody's, under that reserve of
his. That's why I know he'll see my patient for the love of science and
humanity, and charge him nothing."

Ellen found herself particularly interested, next day, in making
preparations for the reception of her husband's friend, the first
bachelor who should spend a night in the house. It was a fortnight since
Red Pepper had insisted upon having the telephones extended to the
upstairs rooms, and during t