return to town of her own accord. Moreover, there appeared to be no
graceful way of requesting an invited guest to leave.

Though Madame was annoyed by the mere fact of Isabel's presence, she had
ceased to distress Rose, who dwelt now in a world apart from the others.
She spent her afternoons at the other house, playing softly downstairs,
reading to Allison, or talking to him of the brilliant future that she
insisted was to be his.

Neither of them spoke of the hour in which Rose had unwittingly revealed
herself, nor did they seem to avoid the subject. Allison had taken her
for granted, on a high plane of pure friendliness, and not for an
instant did he translate her overpowering impulse as anything but
womanly pity.

She practised for an hour or two every morning that she might play
better in the afternoon, she ransacked the library for interesting and
cheerful things to read to him, and she even found a game or two that he
seemed to enjoy. From Madame Francesca's spotless kitchen came many a
dainty dish to tempt his capricious appetite, and all the flowers from
both gardens, daily, made a bower of his room.

Constantly, too, Rose brought the message of hopefulness and good cheer.
From her abounding life and superb vitality he drew unconscious
strength; the hidden forces that defy analysis once more exerted
themselves in his behalf. So far as man is of the earth, earthy, by the
earth and its fruits may he be healed, but the heavenly part of him may
be ministered unto only by the angels of God.

His old fear of the darkness had gone and the night light had been taken