loneliness of pain, that he would be sympathetic — sorry for any one that was suffering? Why did he seem to her like an old, well-known friend? Was it because she had been defending him — standing up to her family for him?

She was so bad at first that she could not even get herself a dose of Dr. Trent’s prescription. But eventually she managed it, and soon after relief came. The pain left her and she lay on her bed, spent, exhausted, in a cold perspiration. Oh, that had been horrible! She could not endure many more attacks like that. One didn’t mind dying if death could be instant and painless. But to be hurt so in dying!

Suddenly she found herself laughing. That dinner had been fun. And it had all been so simple. She had merely said the things she had always thought. Their faces! Uncle Benjamin —