this thing, too!"

"No; not faith," she answered pathetically. "I hardly dare to _hope_. I
have hoped so much in the last year, and--"

"But this is sheer nonsense!" Thornton broke in with irritable
impatience. "I can understand this man here, in a way--he has the
superstition, if you like to call it that, due to lack of education, if
he'll pardon my saying so in his presence; but you, Naida, surely you
can't take any stock in it!"

She smiled at him a little wanly.

"I have told you that I didn't even dare to hope," she said. "But I want
to see--I want to see. I have tried sanatoriums and consulted
specialists until it has all become a nightmare to me and I am no
better--I sometimes think I never shall be any better."

"But," exploded Thornton, rising from his chair, "that's nothing to do
with this--this is rank foolishness! Nurse, you--"

Miss Harvey, too, had risen, and was regarding Mrs. Thornton anxiously.

"It is better to humor her than to excite her," she said in a low voice.

Mrs. Thornton had dropped back on the couch and her face was turned away
from the others, but she stretched out her hand to her husband.

"I am not asking very much, Robert, dear--am I?" she said. "Not very
much. Won't you do this for me?"