Richard could help only with an occasional assent. There was nothing to which he would not consent now. They would be married as soon as Magsie and his mother could get back with the necessities. And then would he drink his milk, good boy--and go straight to sleep, good boy. Then to-morrow he should be helped into the softest motor car procurable for money, and into the private car that his mother and Magsie meant to engage, by hook or crook, to-night. In six days they would be watching the blue Pacific, and in three weeks Richie should be sleeping out of doors and coming downstairs to meals. He had only to obey his mother; he had only to obey his wife. Magsie kissed him good-bye tenderly before leaving him for the hour's absence. Her heart was twisting little tendrils about him already. He was a sweet, patient dear, she told his mother, and he would simply have to get well! "God above bless and reward you, Margaret!" was all Mrs. Gardiner could say, but Magsie never tired of hearing it. When the two women went down the hospital steps they found Billy Pickering, in her large red car, eying them reproachfully from the curb. "This is a nice way to act!" Billy began. "Your janitor's wife said you had come here. I've got two men--" Magsie's expression stopped her. "This is Mr. Gardiner's mother, Billy," Magsie said solemnly. "The doctors agree that he must not stand this climate another day. He had another sinking spell yesterday, and he--he mustn't have another! I am going with them to California--" "You ARE?" Billy ejaculated in amazement. Magsie bridled in becoming importance. "It is all very sudden," she said with the weary, patient smile of the invalid's wife, "but he won't go without me." And then, as Mrs. Gardiner began to give directions to the driver of her own car, which was waiting, she went on inconsequentially, and in a low and troubled undertone, "I didn't know what to do. Do--do you think I'm a fool, Billy?" "But what'll the other man say?" demanded Billy. Magsie, leaning against the door of the car, rubbed the polished wood with a filmy handkerchief. "He won't know," she said. "Won't know? But what will you tell him?" "Oh, he's not here. He won't be back for ever so long. And--and Richie can't live--they all say that. So if I come back before he does, what earthly difference can it make to him that I was married to Richie?" "MARRIED!" For once in her life Billy was completely at a loss. "But are you going to MARRY him?"