Part 30 (1/2)

The door suddenly opened Both youngwoman entered the office

”Mr Kimball, Mr Foster!” she exclaimed, as the boys looked at her in surprise ”I alad to see you,” said Jack ”We need all sorts of doctors Belle is very ill, and the others are not far from it”

”And Cora?” she asked anxiously

”No news,” said Jack, as cheerfully as he could

”Listen I irls The man I stayed over to nurse is my brother!”

CHAPTER XXIII

ANOTHER STORY

”Oh, Miss Robbins!” exclaimed Belle

”My dear! I am so sorry to see you ill!”

”Yes, but Cora----”

”Hush,while you worry so Of course, you cannot stop at once, but you must try”

Hazel, Betty and Bess had withdrawn What a relief it was already to have some one who just kne to control Belle It had been so difficult for the young girls to try to console her, and her nerves had worked so sadly upon their own

”I suppose you thought I was a perfectly dreadful young woman,” said Dr

Robbins cheerily ”But you did not know (she sighed effectively) that every one has her own troubles, while a doctor has her own and a whole lot of others”

”Had you trouble?” Belle asked sympathetically

”Indeed I had, and still have You should know But wait, I'll just call the girls in and make a clean breast of it It will savedoctor had planned to tell her story asBelle's irls, ere in an adjoining room How the strain of that one dreadful week had told upon their fresh young faces! Bess had alhly colored, but always bright of eye, showed signs even of pallor; Betty had put on too much color, that characteristic of the excitable disposition when the skin is the thermometer of the nerves, and her eyes not only sparkled, but actually glittered All this was instantly apparent to the trained eye of the young doctor

”Coirls,” she said ”I have decided to make a full confession”

They looked at her in astonishht she have ht flashed into the ht I deserted you?” began Miss Robbins

”It looked like it,” murmured Bess