But it proved not necessary to wait until the evening to consult about offering sympathy and counsel to the troubled family in Worthington Square. Early in the afternoon, while Mrs. Bell lay resting in her room, and Nancy and Jane sat in the shadow of one of the big maples at the end of the garden--their special retreat on hot days--the tap of Murray’s cane was heard on the walk outside. "Run into the house, dear, please!" Jane whispered, quickly. "It ’s Murray, and I believe he’s come to talk with me about Forrest." Her surmise proved correct, as she knew from her first glance at the pale face and grave eyes of her friend. He was her friend--that she had come to know very clearly in the last few weeks--her friend in quite a different way from that in which Forrest had shown her friendship. There had developed a genuine congeniality of interests between the quiet, book-loving youth and the girl who had not gone to college, but who was persistently giving herself the higher education she longed for. Books he was lending her, lessons in French and German he had been lately begging to be allowed to give her, and many inspiring talks he had with her on the subjects both loved, whenever a chance offered or he could make one. So now, as Murray came toward her, his eyes fixed upon her as if he were sure that here he would find something he sorely needed, Jane felt an added longing to show her power to be of use in time of trouble; and dropping her book--one that belonged to Murray--she came forward to meet him with outstretched hand, and a look which showed him that she already understood. "You ’ve heard?" he asked, in surprise. "I don’t know how, but I ’m glad, for I dreaded to tell it." "Shirley told Nancy--just the bare facts--and of course my little sister told my mother and me. We ’ve been thinking of you all ever since, wishing we could help you." "You can; we need you. Even mother feels it. Olive says when she asked her if she wanted a nurse, she refused to have one except her maid, but said, ’I wish I dared to ask that kind-faced Mrs. Bell. I feel as if she could tell me what to do.’" "Mother will be so glad. She will go over by and by. She loves to help people, and always knows how better than anybody else in the world." "I can believe it. She makes a fellow feel as if he belonged to her, somehow, and she was interested in him." "She is--that’s why she makes you feel so.--Come over here in the shade, please, and tell me what I can do." Murray dropped upon the grass beside Jane’s low chair with a sigh of weariness, and ran his hand through the thick locks of his hair, pushing them away from his forehead with an impatient gesture, as if he would like thus easily to clear away the clouds which bothered him.