Bonnie just once more before you go to mother!"

But the childish lips lay still and white, and the lips of the girl
looking down upon the little quiet form grew whiter also as she looked.

"Oh, my darling! You have gone! You will never call me any more! And you
were all I had! Good-by!" And she stooped and kissed the boy's lips with
a finality that wrung the hearts of the onlookers. They knew she had
forgotten their presence.

The doctor stepped into the hall. The tears were rolling down his
cheeks. "It's tough luck!" he said in an undertone to Courtland.

The young man turned away to hide the sudden convulsion that seemed
coming to his own face. Then he heard the girl's voice again, lower, as
if she were talking confidentially to one who stood close at hand.

"Oh Christ, will You go with little Aleck and see that he is not afraid
till he gets safe home? And will You help me somehow to bear his leaving
me alone?"

The doctor was wiping away the tears with a great, soiled handkerchief.
The girl rose calmly, white and controlled, facing them as if she
remembered them for the first time.

"I want to thank you for all you've done!" she said. "I'm only a
stranger and you've been very kind. But now it's over and I will not
hinder you any longer."

She wanted to be alone. They could see that. Yet it wrung their hearts