The doctor greeted him cordially, eyeing him keenly all the while, “Tell me all you can about his hurt; you were there, I am told,” he said in an aside to Agnes. She obeyed, answering his rapidly put questions. At the close of the recital the doctor made a rapid examination of the healed wound. “A slight pressure still,” he said. “You say he gets better. The nervous shock was great, and as time has gone on, and he has had peaceful and happy surroundings, it has done much to overcome that condition. I think a very slight operation could be performed with safety. We will speak of it later.” “And could you do it? There would be no danger?” “No more than we usually take in such cases, and I think we might venture to assert there would be none at all.” “Will you tell mother? She will be so happy; it is the one thing to make her perfectly content; she misses father so much.” “I know that. Parker told me; it was he who first interested me in the case.” Mr. Kennedy had returned to his work; he had submitted patiently to the examination, answering the questions put him by the doctor, but he took no part in the conversation that followed. It made him rather unhappy to be an object of attention, for he was dimly conscious that all was not right, and he whispered to Agnes, “What is he going to do?” “Make you well and happy, dear dad, I hope,” Agnes returned, giving him an affectionate pat. After a long consultation with Mrs. Kennedy it was decided that an operation should take place a little later, and the hope which the promise of it brought gave a new light to Mrs. Kennedy’s eyes. The doctor stayed to dinner, but shortly after he took his departure, and then Agnes went to her mother. “I promised Carter I’d go rowing with him this afternoon,” she said. “He wants to go up the river to one of the islands and have a little picnic.” Her mother smiled. “You and Carter seem to have a great many expeditions. What does Archie say?” “Archie doesn’t like it, but I told him.” “What did you tell him?” “That Carter and he were both on the same footing, both are friends and good comrades, and nothing more.” “I am not so sure of that,” returned her mother. “Take care, my child, and do not trifle with the affections of a good man.” “I am not trifling, mother. Do you think I am wrong to see so much of Carter? He is not in danger of heartbreak, I can assure you, though sometimes he plays at making love. Do you think I am wrong?” “Not if, in the end, it makes neither him nor Archie unhappy. Run along now, and take your outing.” Agnes was eager in her greeting of Carter when he met her on the river bank. “See here, Carter,” she said, “I’m going to tell you a secret, because I want your help. Will you promise on your honor as a gentleman not to divulge it to a living soul?” “I promise,” he returned, his hand on his heart, “if thereby I can serve a lady.”