--really to hide his joy--and said with mock
gravity, his hand on his heart:

"I shall, most honorable mother, be the first to
take her ladyship's hand as she walks down the gangplank."
Then he added, with a tone of mild reproof
in his voice: "What a funny, queer old mother you
are! Always worrying yourself over the unimportant
and the impossible," and stooping down, he kissed
her again on the cheek and passed out of the room
on the way to his office.

"That woman always comes up at the wrong
moment," Mrs. Cavendish said to herself in a bitter
tone. "I knew he had received some word from her,
I saw it in his face. He would have gone to Philadelphia
but for Jane Cobden."




CHAPTER IX



THE SPREAD OF FIRE


The doctor kept his word. His hand was the first
that touched Jane's when she came down the gangplank,