"Yes; yes. All well. Very well, thank you. Yes."

"I was just passing. I thought perhaps your sister would be pleased if
I inquired; she didn't know I was coming, but--"

"You are very kind, I'm sure," the other broke in, his face relaxing.
"I am sorry that just at this moment I can't ask you to stay, but--"

"Certainly not," William King said shortly; "I was just passing. If
you have any message for Mrs. Richie--"

"Oh! Ah;--yes. Remember me to her. All well in Old Chester? Very kind
in you to look me up. I am sorry I--that it happens that--good-by--"

Dr. King nodded and took himself off; and Lloyd Pryor, closing the
door upon him, wiped the moisture from his forehead. "Alice, where are
you?"

"In the dining-room, daddy dear," she said. "Who is Dr. King?"

He gave her a furtive look and then put his arm over her shoulder.
"Nobody you know, Kitty."

"He said something about 'Mrs. Richie';--who is Mrs. Richie?"

"Some friend of his, probably. Got anything good for dinner,
sweetheart?"

As for William King, he walked briskly down the street, his face very
red. "Confound him!" he said. He was conscious of a desire to kick