"I wrote only this morning to your uncle, stating your gradual but steady improvement, and assuring him that in my opinion--subject, of course, to circumstances--it would be a matter of a few months more only," he said. "Does not that make your feelings a little--only a little more tender--" "What did you say?" a shrill voice interrupted, "say that again, please." Caroline had beguiled the woman next her, a frail, anemic little creature with pathetic eyes, into a halting conversation. "I said," she repeated, buttering her roll thickly and appreciatively with fresh, clover-scented butter, "I said that no weather was too hot for me. I love it." ("Now, really, I _am_ pleased," the big doctor murmured to the girl beside him. "Mrs. Du Long hasn't seemed so interested for days. In fact, she's been quite silent; I was alarmed about her. It's the child's influence.") "--Uncle Joe said," Caroline went on, the roll at her mouth, "and he said I was a regular little snake." She heard a guttural, growling sound beside her, lifted her eyes innocently, and for one flashing, doubtful second beheld the swollen, distorted face, the bulging eyes, the back-drawn snarling lips beside her. She did not see the plunging fork above her head, so quickly did Joan's arm intervene between her and it; she did not hear its impact against the big doctor's plate nor the gurgling voice of what had been the sad-eyed little woman beside her, for her head was buried in Joan's stifling skirt. "Kill the snake! Kill the snake!" some one--or something--yelled, and then a grip of iron caught her arm and the voice of Bluelegs said sternly: "Look straight ahead of you--don't turn your head! Don't turn, Miss Aitken--you can do nothing--they have her safe. The guards are here." The room, indeed, seemed full of gardeners; a bell rang noisily near by. "But the others--the others!" Joan gasped. "They are all right--it won't trouble them," he answered quietly; and as Caroline and the girl looked fearfully where they were bidden, they saw the men and women eating placidly, talking with each other or sitting listless, staring idly at four liveried men who fought furiously with one small, snarling creature. Like the cruel witnesses in dreams, they sat, and the waiters served them swiftly and handed the dishes between their shoulders, as deaf as they. And suddenly they became terrible to Caroline, and the castle menacing, a thing to flee from. "Step out this way," said Bluelegs, when the sounds of struggle had died away, "and take the child through the grounds, will you, please? Try to occupy her thoughts, and your own, too, if you can. This is one of the unfortunate things that rarely happen, but when they do--Yes, indeed, Mr. Ogden, it was certainly fine asparagus--I am glad you enjoyed it. No, she was only a little indisposed--she'll soon be well again. The heat of the sun, undoubtedly. Don't be alarmed, Miss Arliss, she will have every attention."