time she bent forward. He had thought of his uncle's sea
chair on the occasion of his first call, and now he resolved to send it
in Amy's name. Something had warned him that in Eloise's make-up there
was a pride equal to his own. She might receive favors from Amy, as she
had the hat, and although a chair would seem a good deal perhaps, he
would explain it on the ground of Amy's great desire to help some one
when he saw her. He'd send it at once, he thought, and he wrote a note,
saying, "Miss Smith: Please accept this sea chair with the compliments
of Mrs. Amy, who thinks you will find it more comfortable than the
hair-cloth rocker, of which I told her. As she seldom writes to any one,
she has made me her amanuensis, and hopes you will excuse her. Yours,
very truly, Howard Crompton, for Mrs. Amy."

It was a lie, Howard knew, but that did not trouble him, and calling
Sam, he bade him take it with the chair and a bunch of hothouse roses to
Miss Smith. Sam took the chair and the note and the roses, and started
for Mrs. Biggs's, stopping in the avenue to look at the shrub where
Brutus had received the gouge in his shoulder, and stopping again at a
point where some bits of glass from the broken window of the carriage
were lying. All this took time, so that it was after eleven when he at
last reached Mrs. Biggs's gate, and met a drayman coming in an opposite
direction with Jack Harcourt on the cart, seated in a very handsome
wheel chair, and looking supremely happy.

Jack had been very busy all the morning visiting furniture stores and
inquiring for wheel chairs, which he found were not very common. Indeed,
there were only three in the town, and one of these had been sent from
Boston for the approval of Col. Crompton when his rheumatic gout
prevented him from walking. Something about it had not suited him, and
it had remained with the furniture dealer, who, glad of a purchaser, had
offered it to Jack for nearly half the original price. Jack did not care
for the cost if the chair was what he wanted. It was upholstered with
leather, both the seat and the back, and could be easily propelled from
room to room by Eloise herself, while Jack thought it quite likely that
he should himself some day take her out for an airing, possibly to the
school-house, which he had passed on his way to the village. There was a
shorter road through the meadows and woods than the one past the
school-house, but Jack took the latter, hoping he might see