with a hug.

"'Zekiel!" she protested. "'Zekiel!"



CHAPTER II

THE CHICAGO LETTER

The mother was still laughing and struggling in the irresistible
embrace when both became aware that a third person was regarding them in
open-mouthed astonishment.

"'Zekiel, let me _go_!" commanded the scandalized woman, and pushed
herself free from her tormentor, who forthwith returned rather
sheepishly to his buckles.

The young man with trim-pointed beard and mirthful eyes, who stood
in the driveway, had just dismounted from a shining buggy. Doubt and
astonishment were apparently holding him dumb.

The housekeeper, smoothing her disarranged locks and much flushed of
face, returned his gaze, rising from her chair.

"I couldn't believe it was you, Mrs. Forbes!" declared the newcomer.
"Fanshaw isn't--" He looked around vaguely.

"No, he isn't, Dr. Ballard," returned Mrs. Forbes shortly. "He forgot to
rub down Essex Maid one evening when she came in hot, and that finished