theatre. Isn't it kind of him?"

Mrs. Amber nodded smilingly.

"He hates me to be dull," said Marie.

Again Mrs. Amber nodded smilingly; she thought what a make-believe
world these young brides lived in, and then she sighed.

All that afternoon she tended Marie, and gave her tea, and fulfilled
her offer of setting the dinner forward before she went away, with the
inquiry still in her heart.

Marie was better.

She rose from her bed about six o'clock, pleased as a cat with the
warm room, and set about the business of her toilet. Sitting down to
the dressing-table, she looked long and earnestly at her face; the
rest she had taken had plumped and coloured it again, but there was a
something, a kind of frailty, a blue darkness under the eyes. Perhaps
it made her look less pretty? She was inclined to fret over it a
trifle. To counteract it she dressed her hair with a fluffy softness
unusual to her trim style; she took immense pains over her
finger-nails and put on her best high frock. She hurried over her
preparations, having been reluctant to leave her bed till the last
possible moment. Mrs. Amber had laid the dinner-table, but there were
still things to do.

"Some day I shall keep an awf'ly good parlour-maid," Marie promised
herself.