n French to the Russian, and everyone could see the
surprise and pleasure and gratitude in his eyes. He got up and politely
bowed to the Station Master, and offered his arm most ceremoniously to
Mother. She took it, but anybody could have seen that she was helping
him along, and not he her.

"You girls run home and light a fire in the sitting-room," Mother said,
"and Peter had better go for the Doctor."

But it was Bobbie who went for the Doctor.

"I hate to tell you," she said breathlessly when she came upon him
in his shirt sleeves, weeding his pansy-bed, "but Mother's got a very
shabby Russian, and I'm sure he'll have to belong to your Club. I'm
certain he hasn't got any money. We found him at the station."

"Found him! Was he lost, then?" asked the Doctor, reaching for his coat.

"Yes," said Bobbie, unexpectedly, "that's just what he was. He's been
telling Mother the sad, sweet story of his life in French; and she said
would you be kind enough to come directly if you were at home. He has a
dreadful cough, and he's been crying."

The Doctor smiled.

"Oh, don't," said Bobbie; "please don't. You wouldn't if you'd seen him.
I never saw a man cry before. You don't know what it's like."

Dr. Forrest wished then that he hadn't smiled.

When Bobbie and the Doctor got to Three Chimneys, the Russian was
sitting in the arm-chair that had been Father's, stretching his feet
to the blaze of a bright wood fire, and sipping the tea Mother had made
him.

"The man seems worn out, mind and body," was what the Doctor said; "the
cough's bad, but there's nothing that can't be cured. He ought to go
straight to bed, though--and let him have a fire at night."

"I'll make one in my room; it's the only one with a fireplace," said
Mother. She did, and presently the Doctor helped the stranger to bed.

There was a big black trunk in Mother's room that none of the children
had ever seen unlocked. Now, when she had lighted the fire, she unlocked
it and took some clothes out--men's clothes--and set them to air by the
newly lighted fire. Bobbie, coming in with more wood for the fire, saw
the mark on the night-shirt, and looked over to the open trunk. All
the things she could see were men's clothes. And the name marked on the
shirt was Father's name. Then Father hadn't taken his clothes with him.
And that night-shirt was one of Father's new ones. Bobbie remembered its
being made, just before Peter's birthday. Why hadn't Father taken his