What a stupid remark! She had no more idea of saying that than of saying: "Do you think it will snow?" But, somehow, when he put up his book and looked at her so seriously, she could not help blundering. "They ought to be," he said simply. Then she saw that he was preoccupied--scarcely aware that she was present. "I beg your pardon," he said directly, "but I was very busy thinking, just then." "Oh, I should not have disturbed you," she faltered. "I will go away at once. I just wanted to be sure that you would wait for me--not run off and leave me." "Oh, do sit down," he urged. "My brain is stiff, and I've got to quit for to-night. I haven't told you what takes me to Chelton--in fact, I haven't told mother. You see, she thinks I am such a baby that I find it better not to let her know when I am on a case. But the fact is, I am just baby enough to want to tell some one." He arranged the cushions in the big willow chair, and Cora sat down quite obediently. She liked Duncan--there was something akin to bravery behind his careless manner. "What he wouldn't do for a friend!" she thought. "Your case?" asked Cora. "I am very ignorant on medical matters, but I should love to hear about the Chelton case. I fancy I know every one in Chelton." "Well, you know Uncle Bennet, Daisy's father, is quite a surgeon, and he has been called in this case by Dr. Collins. It is a remarkable case, and he has asked me to come in also." "It is that of a child who has been a cripple for some years, and who now is making such progress under the physical-training system that she promises to be cured entirely. "A child?" asked Cora, her heart fluttering. "Yes; and I rather suspect that you know her." He seemed about to laugh. "Uncle mentioned your brother's name in his invitation for me to go in on the case." "Oh, tell me," begged Cora, "is it Wren?" "Just let me see," and he looked over some letters. "It seems to me it was some such fantastical name--yes, here it is. Her name is Wren Salvey." "Oh, my little Wren! And Clip is doing all this! Oh, I must go! Is she going to be operated upon?" "Seems to me, little girl," and the young doctor put his hand over hers as would an elderly physician, "that you are over excitable. I will have to be giving you a sedative if you do not at once quiet down. The child is not to be operated upon, as I understand it. It is simply what we call an observation case." "But she is at our house--she has been there since I came away. Why, however can all that be going on at home and no one there but the housekeeper--" "The child was at your house, but is now in a private sanitarium," he said quickly. "I have had the pleasure of being in close correspondence with your friend Clip." CHAPTER XXIV CORA 'S RESOLVE For a moment Cora was dumfounded. Duncan Bennet a close friend of Clip! The next moment the riddle was solved. "Why, of course you know Clip," she said. "She goes to your college."