"I shall be very glad," Alfred Whittaker continued, "when we are off on our holiday, for I never felt the need of one so badly as I do this year. I suppose it is the excitement of Maudie's wedding, but I can't bear to see you looking as you do now." "I am better--I feel better," said Regina, nervously. It was hard for her to resist the inclination to fling herself upon Alfred's broad bosom and tell him everything that was in her mind. It would have been better if she had done so, but she resisted the inclination from a desire not to give way to unusual weakness. "Now sit down quietly by the window and rest while I run up and change my coat." It was his habit to make what might be called a half-toilette for dinner--to take off his frock-coat and substitute for it a sort of smoking-jacket, quite a glorified garment, in which Regina admired him as some women admire their husbands when they get drunk, with that curious admiration for the breaking off of shackles, even merely conventional ones. It was a delight to Regina, strong-minded, commanding, magnetic, almost eccentric nature that she was, to give her husband's behests instant obedience, and she sat down in the huge armchair by the window with a sigh of relief. Well, some hussy might have got hold of him, yes--but his heart was with her. She owned to herself that there was a little bit of the hypocrite in her, but she forgave herself the infinitesimal sin because Alfred had noticed instantly that she was paler than usual. Ought she to have told him that she had been using powder, and that she was not really more worn-out than usual? Perhaps so, and yet, she told herself, no woman on earth could have forced herself to be so strictly just. Then there was a sound of the gong in the hall, and Alfred came down, Julia coming with him. "I'm afraid, my bird," he was saying, as they crossed the threshold, "that you miss Maudie more every day that goes by, and soon you'll be marrying yourself, and there'll only be old Darby and Joan to jog along together." "I've not gone yet, daddy," said Julia. "Maudie had what we may call adequate temptation. I may go on for years before I meet anybody who takes my fancy as completely as Harry took hers." "Meantime, I think you ought to go out with your mother a little more. She looks worn-out to-day." "Do you, darling?" looking toward the large white figure at the window. "I declare you do. Why, you told me that you would be busy all day and wouldn't want me." "Did I?" said Regina. "I do not think quite that, dearest. But it was true, I did not want you with me to-day; I was full of business of one sort or another." "Well, well, come to dinner," said Alfred, genially, "come to dinner. We needn't live to eat, but we must eat to live, and here is a bit of salmon that would gladden the heart of a king."