Mainwaring thought bitterly that he had. "But it's a cure for all that,
Miss Macy," he said, with an attempt at cheerfulness, "and being a cure,
you see, there's no longer an excuse for my staying here. I have been
making arrangements for leaving here to-morrow."

"So soon?"

"Do you think it soon, Miss Macy?" asked Mainwaring, turning pale in
spite of himself.

"I quite forgot--that you were here as an invalid only, and that we owe
our pleasure to the accident of your pain."

She spoke a little artificially, he thought, yet her cheeks had not lost
their pink bloom, nor her eyes their tranquillity. Had he heard Minty's
criticism he might have believed that the organic omission noticed by
her was a fact.

"And now that your good work as Sister of Charity is completed, you'll
be able to enter the world of gayety again with a clear conscience,"
said Mainwaring, with a smile that he inwardly felt was a miserable
failure. "You'll be able to resume your morning rides, you know, which
the wretched invalid interrupted."

Louise raised her clear eyes to his, without reproach, indignation, or
even wonder. He felt as if he had attempted an insult and failed.

"Does my cousin know you are going so soon?" she asked finally.

"No, I did not know myself until to-day. You see," he added hastily,