ause him to suffer. She knew she
could not heal him; but she also knew that everything is healed in
time, and that sometimes it is possible for people to help time a
little.

Her first remark to her son, this evening, was that to the best of
her memory she had never used the word "hellion." And, upon his
saying gently, no, he thought it probable that she never had, but
seeking no farther and dropping his eyes to the burning wood,
apparently under the impression that the subject was closed, she
informed him brusquely that it was her intention to say it now.

"What is it you want to say, mother?"

"If I can bring myself to use the word `hellion'," she returned,
"I'm going to say that of all the heaven-born, whole-souled and
consistent ones I ever knew Hedrick Madison is the King."

"In what new way?" he inquired.

"Egerton Villard. Egerton used to be the neatest, best-mannered,
best-dressed boy in town; but he looks and behaves like a Digger
Indian since he's taken to following Hedrick around. Mrs. Villard
says it's the greatest sorrow of her life, but she's quite
powerless: the boy is Hedrick's slave. The other day she sent a
servant after him, and just bringing him home nearly ruined her
limousine. He was solidly covered with molasses, over his clothes
and all, from head to foot, and then he'd rolled in hay and
chicken feathers to be a _gnu_ for Hedrick to kodak in the African
Wilds of the Madisons' stable. Egerton didn't know what a gnu was,
but Hedrick told him that was the way to be one, he said. Then,
when they'd got him scraped and boiled, and most of his hair
pulled out, a policemen came to arrest him for stealing the jug of
molasses at a corner grocery."

Richard nodded, and smiled faintly for comment. They sat in
silence for a while.

"I saw Mrs. Madison yesterday," said his mother. "She seemed very
cheerful; her husband is able to talk almost perfectly again,
though he doesn't get downstairs. Laura reads to him a great
deal."

He nodded again, his gaze not moving from the fire.

"Laura was with her mother," said Mrs. Lindley. "She looked very
fetching in a black cloth suit and a fur hat--old ones her sister
left, I suspect, but very becoming, for all that. Laura's `going
out' more than usual this winter. She's really the belle of the
holiday dances, I hear. Of course she would be", she added,
thoughtfully--"now."

"Why should she be `now' more than before?"

"Oh, Laura's quite blossomed," Mrs.