"Hasn't she! But I should have sent her away the very first night. I'm getting to depend on her. I'm plumb foolish about her now--can't let her out of my sight; and yet I'm off my feed worryin' over her. Gregg is getting dangerous--you can't fool me when it comes to men. Curse 'em, they're all alike--beasts, every cussed one of them. I won't have my girl mistreated, I tell you that! I'm not fit to be her mother, now that's the God's truth, Reddy, and this rotten little back-country cow-town is no place for her. But what can I do? She won't leave me so long as I'm sick, and every day ties her closer to me. I don't know what I'd do without her. If I'm goin' to die I want her by me when I take my drop. So you see just how I'm placed." She looked yellow and drawn as she ended, and Redfield was moved by her unwonted tenderness. "Now let me advise," he began, after a moment's pause. "We musn't let the girl get homesick. I'll take her home with me this afternoon, and bring her back along with a doctor to-morrow." "All right, but before you go I want to have a private talk--I want to tell you something." He warned her away from what promised to be a confession. "Now, now, Eliza, don't tell me anything that requires that tone of voice; I'm a bad person to keep a secret, and you might be sorry for it. I don't want to know anything more about your business than I can guess." "I don't mean the whiskey trade," she explained. "I've cut that all out anyway. It's something more important--it's about Ed and me." "I don't want to hear _that_ either," he declared. "Let bygones be bygones. What you did then is outlawed, anyway. Those were fierce times, and I want to forget them." He looked about. "Let me see this Miss Virginia and convey to her Mrs. Redfield's invitation." "She's in the kitchen, I reckon. Go right out." He was rather glad of a chance to see the young reformer in action, and smiled as he came upon her surrounded by waiters and cooks, busily superintending the preparations for the noon meal, which amounted to a tumult each day. She saw Redfield, nodded, and a few moments later came toward him, flushed and beaming with welcome. "I'm glad to see you again, Mr. Supervisor." He bowed profoundly. "I'm delighted to find you well, Miss Virginia, and doubly pleased to see you in your regimentals, which you mightily adorn." She looked down at her apron. "I made this myself. Do you know our business is increasing wonderfully? I'm busy every moment of the day till bedtime." "Indeed I do know it. I hear of the Wetherford House all up and down the line. I was just telling your mother she'll be forced to build bigger, like the chap in the Bible." "She works too hard. Poor mother! I try to get her to turn the cash-drawer over to me, but she won't do it. Doesn't she seem paler and weaker to you?"