Evening star., 1915-05-16

over lne pages OF a large red-leather note
book till she came upon this item, "Stuart
health against which she
placed a cryptic check-mark.
"Fve been thinking over your case,
Stuart and something's got to be
done about it, she said decisvely,
as though now that the matter had be-
come the subject of memorandum it
was a part of the days work, to be dis
posed of and dismissed. "That Califor-
mia place you went to last didn't do you
any good. Where was it you said you
were going next?"
1t had not been California resort but
enjoyed his patronage. His mothers fail
ure to remember was further proof of her
complete lack of comprehension and SYM
pathy. Mrs. Lybrand had not in fact,
forgotten. She never forgot anything.
This was only her fashion of dealing with
matters she considered unimportant.
~ was thinking of Banning Farms, that
new place in Connecticut. just now had
a letter from the superintendent. think
I'll run down there for couple of weeks.
| couldn't sleep last night-my pulse ran
up to llS, and l had that queer numbness
in the left side of my face
She ignored his symptoms, referred to
her datebook and suggested that they
could travel together as far as New York:
she had a convention there three days
later. I'm convinced that your inactive
life is responsible for your difficulties. If
you once had good stirring up, you'd
feel like a live human being"
81 had good shaking up when you
dragged me over Europe two years ago
and got pneumonia he replied testify.
"Dont be foolish, Stuart. You hadn't
pneumonia any more than you had small
pox: it was mild tonsilitis-at worst"
Discussion of the nature of the malady
with which he had been seized when
coaching through the Trossachs would
not be profitable. They had debated it
frequently. She scratched a line in her
memorandum book, "Wire for appoint
ment with Isabel, and bade him ring for
the machine.
He put her into her car and settled him
self to sulk in the library. His mother
was very unfair to Fanny Gordon, whose
letter, which had fallen under the keen
maternal eye, announced that she too was
considering a flight to Banning Farms.
He sighed, thrust clinical thermometer
into his mouth, assured himself that his
pulse was dropping one beat in ten, swal-
lowed a tablet, and began studying book
fanciers' catalogues
TT is good of you to come" said Mrs.
Gordon, extending her hand languidly
from her invalid chair on the broad veran-
da of Banning Farms.
She was beyond question pretty wo-
man, with light, fluffy hair and big, ap-
pealing violet eyes. She had mastered all
the arts of graceful invalidism. Her filmy
boudoir cap with its lilac ribbons, and
even the lilac blanket in which she was
wrapped to protect her from the May
breezes, had been chosen with an eye to
effect.
"You seem much better than when l
saw you last, he remarked, as lowering
nurse placed a wind-chair for him and
threw a blanket over his shoulders.
"Oh, ] am better, and-your coming"
The violet eyes finished the sentence with
practised eloquence. 1--WE must have
some walks-but no, she corrected her.
self hastily, IL can see that you are not up
to that. | can't allow you to overtax
yourself We must wait till you've pulled