"Yes. She's come over to see Miss Sterling. They're very
intimate."

"Miss Sterling?" mused Miss Mullaly, with a sweeping glance round
the table. "I don't believe I've seen her."

"Yes, you have. She was down to tea last night. She had on a
light blue waist, and sat over at the end."

"Oh, I remember now! She's little and sweet-looking. Somebody
told me she had nervous prostration. Too bad! She is so young and
pretty!"

A tiny sneer fluttered from face to face, skipping one here and
there in its course. It ended in Miss Castlevaine's "Huh!"

"I think Miss Sterling is real pretty!" Miss Crilly, from the
opposite side, beamed on the "new lady."

"She has faded dreadfully," asserted Mrs. Crump. "They used to
call her handsome years ago, though she never was my style o'
beauty. But now--" She shook her head with hard emphasis.

"She has been through a good deal," observed Mrs. Grace mildly.

"No more'n I have!" was the retort. "If she'd stop thinking about
herself and eat like other folks, she'd be better."

"Nervous prostration patients have to be careful about their diet,