“You can't help being good,” Dora said, feelingly, her wonderful violet eyes filling. “Your great heart simply went out to us in our trouble, and you have determined to help us in every way possible. Mother thinks all the world of you, and Lionel actually believes you are some sort of god.” “Well, he's badly fooled, I tell you!” Dearing laughed. “But speaking of him, I must lecture you good and hard. You are not treating the child at all right. He oughtn't to be cooped up here in this little yard like he is. It is too small. A growing boy like that needs room, and plenty of it.” “Oh, you don't understand!” Dora sighed, while a look of deepest pain tortured her mobile face. “I couldn't bear to have him running around a neighborhood as--as heartless as this one is. He is so observant, and has such an inquiring mind, and people are so--so cruel, so utterly unforgiving. But you are trying to change the subject. You think I have no money with which to pay a doctor's bill.” She laughed suddenly and mysteriously as she went on: “I believe I'll let you into a secret. I'll show you something. Come into the parlor.” She led him, with graceful step and bearing, through the little central passage of the cottage to the parlor door, and they entered together. She laughed like a merry child; it was the sweet, rippling laugh he remembered so well as belonging to his youth and hers, as she pointed to the easel before a window. On it was a good water-color picture of a child at play on the grass near a stream, with a pastoral scene sketched in the background. “Oh,” he exclaimed, admiringly, “that's the best you've shown me! It is very, very good.” “That's only one of many,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “I wanted something to occupy my mind after I gave up music, and I began these studies merely as an experiment. I worked for a year while Lionel was a baby just to--you know, Wynn--just to forget!” He was silent, being unable to formulate any reply that was appropriate to the delicate situation, and she went on simply, and still in the winsome tone which had always appealed to him so strongly.