"She is in the library, answering a letter for me; she will be
through very shortly. Do you want her particularly, dear?"
innocently questioned the lady who was absorbed in filling a
jardiniere with scarlet geraniums.
"N-o, not very; only I've been growing conscious during the last
few minutes that there is a--er--something lacking in the
atmosphere. Dr. Stanley, do have this rocker," she interposed,
with a sly smile, and pushing one towards him, "it's too warm this
morning for such a waste of energy."
Either by chance or intention, she had swung the chair directly
opposite a low window that commanded a view of the library, where
Katherine, in a familiar gown of pale yellow chambrey, was
oblivious to all but the work in hand. The young man shot a
searching look at the mischievous elf; then, with a quiet "thank
you," deliberately took the proffered seat, but, ten minutes
later, he also was missing from the company.
He found Katherine seated before her own private desk, and in the
act of stamping the letter which he had just seen her addressing.
"I hope I do not intrude?" he observed, in a tone of polite
inquiry.
"No, I am just through," she replied, as she carefully pressed the
still moist stamp in place with a small blotter.
"I have come to ask if you have a copy of that flashlight picture
of the 'Flower Carnival'" he resumed. "Dorrie's is at home, but
she wishes to have some more copies, and as I am going to town to-
morrow I thought I would attend to it."
"Yes, I have mine right here," said Katherine, as she took a small
key from a drawer and proceeded to unlock a compartment in her
desk, smilingly explaining as she did so: "This is where I keep my
choicest treasures--things that I do not let everyone see."
"Must I look away?" demanded her companion, in a mock-injured
tone.
"Oh! no"--with a silvery ripple--"I am not quite so secretive as
that."
Removing a box, she carefully placed it one side, then brought
forth a package nicely wrapped in tissue paper. Unfolding this,
she disclosed several photographs, and among them was the one he
had asked for.
"How fortunate you were to get so good a picture!" she observed,
and studied it a moment before giving it to him. "How happy Dorrie
looks! Although, to see her now, one would scarcely believe that
this was ever taken for her."
"No, indeed! What a marvelous change a year has made in that
child!" said Dr. Stanley, in an animated tone.
"'A year!' I am sure you do not quite mean that," and she lifted a
questioning look to him.
"No, I do not--thank you for correcting me," he gravely rejoined.
"I know time has had nothing to do with it--that we owe it all to
Christ--Truth. How watchful one needs to be of one's words, in
Science."
"Yes, or one is liable to give wrong impressions without meaning
to. It is scientific to be exact, and"--with a soft sigh--"we all
have to learn that by being continually on guard."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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