"Oh, but this _can't_ go on forever," protested Frank Gleason again, restlessly. "I'll see Burke. As soon as I'm on my feet again I shall run up there." "But you've given your promise not to tell, remember." "Yes, yes, I know. I shan't tell, of course. But I can bring back something, I'm sure, that will--will cause this stubborn young woman to change her mind." "I doubt it. Helen says she's not ready to go back yet, anyway." "Not sufficiently 'improved,' I suppose," laughed the doctor, a little grimly. "Perhaps. Then, too, she has other plans all made." "Oh, she has!" "Yes. She's going abroad. Do you remember Angie Reynolds?--Angie Ried, you know--married Ned Reynolds." "Yes. Nice girl!" "Well, they're going abroad for some years--some business for the firm, I believe. Anyway, Ned will have to be months at a time in different cities, and Angie and little Gladys are going with him. They have asked Helen and Betty to go, too; and Helen has agreed to go." "And leave you?" At the indignant expression on her brother's face, Edith Thayer laughed merrily. "But, my dear Frank, I thought you were just threatening to _get_ Helen to leave me!" she challenged. "So I was," retorted the doctor, nothing daunted. "But it was to get her to go home, where she belonged; not on any wild-goose chase like this abroad business. What does she want?--to be presented at court? Maybe she thinks that's going to do the job!" "Oh, come, come, Frank, now you're sarcastic!" Mrs. Thayer's voice was earnest, though her eyes were twinkling. "It isn't a wild-goose chase a bit. It's a very sensible plan. In the first place, it takes Helen out of the country--which is wise, if she's still going to try to keep her whereabouts a secret from Burke; for eventually some one, somewhere, would see her--some one who knew her face. She can't always live so secluded a life as she has these past three years, of course,--we have spent the greater share of that time at the beach here, coming early and staying late.