Elizabeth was bathed in perspiration from the hurry of having late breakfast and the fact that she would never dare to ask to be taken before all the work was done and the kitchen ready for close inspection, and she thought indignantly of the scrubbed floors of yesterday and wondered how the child could be expected to be well when he was fed on overheated milk day after day. Instantly she put the thought away from her. She must be cool and careful if she were to get to Aunt Susan's to-day. "I'll sponge him off with soda in his bath and he'll be all right. I told Aunt Susan we'd take dinner with them to-day, and it's nearly half-past ten now. They have dinner at noon on Sunday as well as other days; so run and hitch up, and I'll be ready with baby. I'll have your things laid out so you can jump right into them when you come in." She looked down at the baby so as not to meet his eye, but the offhand assumption of his readiness to go seemed to her to be encouraging. "With that child?" was the astonished exclamation. "It won't hurt him as much as for me to stand over the stove and cook a dinner at home," Elizabeth answered firmly, "and, besides, John, I promised Aunt Susan we'd come. Now don't be cross. I've got to go, and that's all there is about it." John Hunter was actually astonished now. He had started out with his usual pretenses, but this was something new. Elizabeth had promised without consulting him! What was happening? "You may be willing to take that child out in his condition--I'm not," he said severely. "I don't understand what you're thinking about." "_I'm_ thinking there'd be less harm to him in a day of rest for his mother than anything else," she said bitterly, "and I am not allowed to get a minute of it in this house. _You'd_ let me heat his milk to the boiling point to get dinner and think it was what we both deserved!" She was instantly dismayed at what she had done. She had spit out all the actuality of her convictions in spite of every effort not to reply unkindly when he was unfair to her. She could not afford to retort sharply to-day. She must resort to other tactics if she were to win to-day. Besides, the truth was only a half-truth. John did not in his heart wish either of them harm; he was just a blind sort of bossing creature who had somehow got into command of her and enjoyed bullying her and setting tasks to keep her occupied. He owned her, however, and she must court his consent to this visit. "Please, dear. I told Aunt Susan we'd come. I'd--I'd have told you before--only--only I was afraid you'd not be willing--and then I'd get to crying and give up--and I've got to go. Now don't be cross. Go this once good-naturedly." To get close to him she put her hand on his arm and put up her face coaxingly for a kiss. John Hunter ignored his wife's signal for tender relations and shook off her hand impatiently without looking at her.