“I thought you’d be more like Dad. And you don’t look in the least like an invalid.”

“You’re disappointed I ain’t sicker, eh?” commented Ellen grimly.

“No, indeed,” answered Lucy. “I’m glad to find you so strong. But it makes me feel 41 you do not need me as much as I thought you did. You are perfectly able to take care of yourself without my help.”

41

“Oh, I can take care of myself all right, young woman,” Ellen returned with an acid smile. “I don’t require a nurse—at least not yet.”

Lucy maintained a thoughtful silence.

“I don’t quite understand why you sent for me,” she presently remarked.

“Didn’t I write you I was lonesome?”

“Yes. But you’re not.”

Ellen laughed in spite of herself.

“What makes you so sure of that?”

“You don’t look lonesome.”

Again the elder woman chuckled.

“Mebbe I do, an’ mebbe I don’t,” she responded. “Anyhow, you can’t always judge of how folks feel by the way they look.”

“I suppose not.”

The reply was spoken politely but without conviction.

“An’ besides, I had other reasons for gettin’ you here,” her aunt went on. “I mentioned ’em in my letter.”

“I don’t remember the other reasons.”

Ellen stared, aghast. 42

42

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