"Women beat the devil when it comes to driving," thought the doctor within himself. "They'll drive right over you and never seem to think they ought to give part of the road. And they do it everywhere, not only where there are ditches." He restrained his speech, backed the offending vehicle and started the travelers on. While he was doing so his own steed started on and he had a lively run to catch him. Mary had thought of turning back to break off another spray of the bittersweet but John's profanity was rising to heaven. Diplomacy required her to get to the buggy and into it at once. This she did and the doctor plunged in after her. "Forgive me for keeping you waiting," she said gently. She held the bittersweet out before her. "Isn't it lovely, John?" A soft observation turneth away wrath. The doctor's was oozing away sooner than he wished. They drove on for a while in silence. The soft, still landscape dotted here and there with farm houses and with graceful elm and willow trees, was lit up and glorified by the after-glow. The evening sky arching serenely over a quiet world, how beautiful it was! And as Mary's eyes caught a glittering point of light in the blue vault above them, she sang softly to herself: "O, thou sublime, sweet evening star, Joyful I greet thee from afar." For a while she watched the stars as one by one they twinkled into view, then drawing her wraps more closely about her, she leaned back in the carriage and gave herself up to pleasant reflection, and before she realized it the lights of home were twinkling cheerily ahead. CHAPTER XVI. "You are not going out tonight, John, no matter how often the 'phone rings. I positively will not let you." Mary spoke with strong emphasis. All the night before he had been up and today had been a hard day for him. She had seldom seen him so utterly weary as he was tonight. He had come home earlier than usual and now sat before the fire, his head sunk on his breast, half asleep. "Go right to bed, dear, then you can really rest." The doctor, too tired to offer any resistance, rose and went to the bedroom. In a few minutes his wife heard regular sonorous sounds from the bed. (When she spoke of these sounds to John, Mary pronounced it without the first _o_.) Glad that he had so soon fallen into deep sleep she settled back in her chair. "I'll protect him tonight," she thought, "though fiery darts be hurled."