"Why, no; I don't think it is so bad," he said consolingly. "It isn't exactly pretty, and you look a good deal like a boy. When I get used to it, though, I think I shall rather like it. It seems to suit you, somehow." She looked up gratefully. "What a dear old fellow you are, Billy! That was the reason I didn't come. I couldn't bear to have you see me, or to know about it. Now I don't mind anybody else. I hated to have you know I was so horrid." "You are peppery, Teddy, for a fact. Don't get in a tantrum again, or you will cut off your nose next, and that won't grow again." He tried to laugh; but his color was coming and going, and Theodora saw that he was suffering. She sprang up and stooped to arrange the cushions about him. "What is it?" she asked, startled at his changing color. "It's the old pain. It won't last but a minute." "What does papa say?" she asked, when he was easier again. "Nothing, except that it's a strain and that I must keep quiet." "How long?" "That's the worst of it." There was an utter dreariness in his tone which Theodora had never heard before. "I didn't mean you to know; but I was going to surprise you all by walking over to your house, Thanksgiving morning, and now--" he hesitated, and, boy as he was and a plucky boy, too, two great tears came and splashed down on Theodora's fingers; "now he says it will be two or three weeks before I can even sit up again." That night, when Theodora rose to go home, she turned back to the lounge once more, after she had said good-by to Mrs. Farrington. "You must come in, every day," Mrs. Farrington said. "Will is better already for your being here." Theodora herself saw the change, as she bent down to shake hands. He looked brighter and better than when she had come, more animated and eager, more like his old self. "Billy," she said steadily; "I want you to promise me something." "What's that?" "That, if the time ever comes again when you want me, or when I can help you, you'll send for me, without waiting. I'm only a girl, I know; but I'm better than nothing, and I never go back on my friends." Billy smiled up at her benignly. "No, Ted; I don't believe you ever do. And there are times when 'only a girl' is about as good as anything you can find. Come again." "I will," she answered.