"It 'was' dreadful; all the more because one could not help feeling that the boys ought to have been more careful. When I saw them a fortnight later Giles seemed to have grown into a man—so grave and silent! Colin looked awfully ill, and we thought it was Elsye's death. But in time it came out that he was suffering fearfully from his head, and was making a fight to keep about as usual, that nobody might know. He soon had a breakdown, and was worse than if he had been taken in hand at first. He had fallen with the back of his head against a boulder, and the doctors said that the front part of the brain had been badly jarred against the skull by the concussion; so there was double injury. For more than two years he was ill; often kept for days in a dark room. The boy's patience was wonderful, and the pluck with which he would struggle to be well, the moment he was easier. Of course school was out of the question. He was hardly allowed to look at a book. Giles used to read to him when he could bear to listen—which was not for a long while. The marvel is that he has turned out so well, considering his disadvantages. Still, there always is a something about him not like other men. He lives a life of his own. And he is so dreamy—so mystical, if that is the right word." "He is a genius," remarked Phyllys, as if that explained everything. "Public school life would have done his genius no harm. I wish he could have had it." "He didn't model—then?" "Mrs. Keith snubbed him if he began. He always was trying. Of course, as a boy, he could not take his own way. She tried him at times—made him ill, when he might have been fairly well. The least worry brings on his headache, and she can't help worrying. Colin somehow excites her, while she never minds anything done by Giles." "My dear, she is a woman with a temper; but her prosperity depends on keeping straight with Giles," said Mr. Dugdale. "Yet I have seen him furious with her, for Colin's sake." "Is Giles a man with a temper?" asked Phyllys. "I should hardly call him so," Mrs. Alyn replied. "He is not touchy about little things—not quick to imagine slights. But if once he 'is' upset—" She made a pause. Mr. Dugdale's book had risen to its former position, and he looked over its edge. "My nephew Jack was at school with Giles. He once remarked that it took a jolly lot to put Giles into a wax; but when, by combined efforts, that feat had been accomplished, Jack's expression was, 'My eyes! We fellows take care to be in the treetops out of his reach.'" "Yes; I suppose he 'could' be angry," murmured Phyllys. "But never with Colin," added Kathleen. Phyllys was silent. She knew better. CHAPTER XIX A VANISHED PORTRAIT "ARE you really better? I'm glad."