what he wrote in the paper about papa last
year--what he's going to write next month. Don't you see my position?"

"I don't care what he writes in the papers!... When it comes to people,
there's nobody so kind--and wise. And--"

"He's the one person," said Cally, resolutely, "I could not possibly
talk to about it."

Henrietta, falling back on the thought she had set out with, laughed
good-naturedly.

"Then, I suppose, you'll want to fly at once. He's due here at any
minute, you know--in fact, he's half an hour late now--"

"Here!... Is he coming here this afternoon?"

This time her start was without concealment. Hen looked genuinely
surprised.

"He's our doctor--I told you the other day ... But he doesn't bite, my
dear! You look as if I'd said that a grizzly bear and three mad ogres
were loping down the steps."

"I never think of him as a doctor somehow," said Cally, recovering, with
a little laugh. "So I couldn't imagine--"

"Second largest practice in town--only I'll admit that his not charging
any fees has something to do with it. In fact V.V.'s patients usually
borrow anything that's loose, including his hats, suits, and shoes ...
Cally, it's like a play, for I believe there he is now ..."

True enough, a firm but unequal footstep just then sounded on the
Cooneys' wooden steps outside. But Hen sat still, a far-away look in
her eyes.

"Did you hear what Pond said, Cally, the first time he saw V.V.?--'Who's
that man with the face like a bishop that never grew up?'... Do you
know, I never look at him without remembering mean things I've done and
said, and wishing I hadn't ..."

She rose as the bell rang, started toward the door, hesitated, turned in
the middle of the floor.

"I'd naturally ask him in here, Cally, while I went up to see if things
are ready for him upstairs. Of course, if you'd rather not see him ..."

Cally had risen too. The two girls stood looking at each other.

"No," said Cally, "I'd like to see him. Only I can't speak to him about
the Works. I cannot."

"No, no--of course not, dear, if you don't feel like it."

Hen went out to open the door. Greetings floated in....

Cally stood at the parlor window, staring out into the shabby street.
Over the way was the flaring sign of an unpained dentist, making
promises never to be redeemed, and two doors away the old stand of the
artificial limb-maker. Cally looked full at a show-window full of shiny
new legs; but she did not see the g