Cally repressed a little start; though the thought, to speak truth, was far from being a new one. But how could she possibly talk to V.V. without the ultimate disloyalty to papa?... "No," she said, quietly, after a brief pause. "I could hardly do that." "Why not? He's thought out all these things further than anybody I know. And he'll--" "Hen, have you forgotten what he wrote in the paper about papa last year--what he's going to write next month. Don't you see my position?" "I don't care what he writes in the papers!... When it comes to people, there's nobody so kind--and wise. And--" "He's the one person," said Cally, resolutely, "I could not possibly talk to about it." Henrietta, falling back on the thought she had set out with, laughed good-naturedly. "Then, I suppose, you'll want to fly at once. He's due here at any minute, you know--in fact, he's half an hour late now--" "Here!... Is he coming here this afternoon?" This time her start was without concealment. Hen looked genuinely surprised. "He's our doctor--I told you the other day ... But he doesn't bite, my dear! You look as if I'd said that a grizzly bear and three mad ogres were loping down the steps." "I never think of him as a doctor somehow," said Cally, recovering, with a little laugh. "So I couldn't imagine--" "Second largest practice in town--only I'll admit that his not charging any fees has something to do with it. In fact V.V.'s patients usually borrow anything that's loose, including his hats, suits, and shoes ... Cally, it's like a play, for I believe there he is now ..." True enough, a firm but unequal footstep just then sounded on the Cooneys' wooden steps outside. But Hen sat still, a far-away look in her eyes. "Did you hear what Pond said, Cally, the first time he saw V.V.?--'Who's that man with the face like a bishop that never grew up?'... Do you know, I never look at him without remembering mean things I've done and said, and wishing I hadn't ..." She rose as the bell rang, started toward the door, hesitated, turned in the middle of the floor. "I'd naturally ask him in here, Cally, while I went up to see if things are ready for him upstairs. Of course, if you'd rather not see him ..." Cally had risen too. The two girls stood looking at each other. "No," said Cally, "I'd like to see him. Only I can't speak to him about the Works. I cannot." "No, no--of course not, dear, if you don't feel like it." Hen went out to open the door. Greetings floated in.... Cally stood at the parlor window, staring out into the shabby street. Over the way was the flaring sign of an unpained dentist, making promises never to be redeemed, and two doors away the old stand of the artificial limb-maker. Cally looked full at a show-window full of shiny new legs; but she did not see the grisly spectacle, so it did not matter.