"It wouldn't seem quite so heartless!" retorted his indignant patient. Next day Merle received a letter, which was pushed under the door. It was all in rhyme, and as it was in Dr. Ramsay's handwriting she concluded that her father must have sat up late the night before courting the muse of poetry. His verses ran as follows: MERLE WITH MUMPS When Merle was suffering from the mumps She felt most down and in the dumps; Her friends, to cheer her up the while, Laughed at her face to make her smile. But eyeing with reproach her folk She told them 'twas a sorry joke. "Hard-hearted wretches," so she cried, "To jeer while here upstairs I bide!" Having no bad intent to tease her, But wishing only just to please her, Her family then ceased their jeers And showed their sympathy in tears. Her mother, who her pillow set, Dropped tears and made the room quite wet, And gurgled forth, "Alack-a-day, That here upstairs with mumps you stay!" Her uncle just outside the door Sobbed till his chest was hoarse and sore, And, swallowing in his throat some lumps, He mourned, "My Niece has got the mumps" The maids who came her plight to see Splashed tears in cups of milk or tea; The room it grew so very damp Her limbs began to feel the cramp. Her father to her chamber crept, And lifted up his voice and wept; With kerchief of capacious size He stood and groaned and mopped his eyes. So big the tears that from him fell They were enough to make a well, And, standing in a pool of water, He sighed, "Alack! my mumpsy daughter!" "Stop! Stop!" cried Merle, "O don't be sad! These waterworks will drive me mad! Good gracious, how I wish you'd smile Instead of weeping all the while! "Cheer up, for goodness' sake, I pray, And treat me in your usual way. No more I'll call you hearts of leather, In spite of mumps we'll laugh together!" Perhaps the family thought they had not done enough to relieve the tedium of Merle's banishment; at any rate they set to work and made great efforts to amuse her. Mavis sketched her portrait, adding wings and a halo, and printed underneath "Saint Merle suffering her Martyrdom." Mother clicked away on the typewriter, and deposited a document in her daughter's room, which claimed to be: _Extract from "The Durracombe and Devon Times"_ SOCIETY GOSSIP