"No, grandfather," Sam assured him earnestly, "she doesn't. I asked
her, and she said--"

"Asked her?" roared the old man, "Do you expect a female to tell the
truth?" And then he swore steadily for a minute. "I'll have to see
Lavendar," he said despairingly.

But Mr. Wright's cause was aided by some one stronger than Dr.
Lavendar. Helena's attention was so fixed on the visitor who was
coming to the Stuffed Animal House that Sam's conversation ceased to
amuse her. Those little night-drawers on which she pricked her fingers
interested her a thousand times more than did his dramatic visions.
They interested her so much that sometimes she could almost forget
that Lloyd Pryor's visit was delayed. For though it was the first of
May, he had not come again. "I am so busy," he wrote; "it is
impossible for me to get away. I suppose David will have his sling all
ready for me when I do arrive?"

Helena was sitting on the porch with her clumsy needlework when Sarah
brought her the letter, and after she had read it, she tore it up
angrily. "He was in Mercer a week ago; I know he was, because there is
always that directors' meeting on the last Thursday in April, so he
must have been there. And he wouldn't come!" Down in the orchard the
apple-trees were in blossom, and when the wind stirred, the petals
fell in sudden warm white showers; across the sky, from west to east,
was a path of mackerel clouds. It was a pastel of spring--a dappled
sky, apple blossoms, clover, and the river's sheen of gray-blue. All
about her were the beginnings of summer--the first exquisite green of
young leaves; oaks, still white and crumpled from their furry sheaths;
horse-chestnuts, each leaf drooping from its stem like a hand bending