bundled up, a general wreck.”

“Let him smoke, then, poor thing, while Aunt Susanna is off showing Farrandale what she’s made of. It will be his last for one while.”

It was, indeed, Hugh’s last indulgence because[42] a high fever took possession of the young adventurer that night, and for a few days Miss Frink’s physician was a busy man. She paid scant attention to her other interests until the boy was sane again; and, although she kept to the usual hours in her study, the nurse was instructed to report to her at short intervals.

[42]

“It does seem, Miss Frink, as if we ought to send for his Aunt Sukey,” said this attractive young woman on one occasion. “He calls for her incessantly.”

Miss Frink drew her features together in the sudden grimace which sent her eyeglasses off her nose.

“How are we going to do that? You looked through that little trunk of his, I suppose, as I told you?”

“Yes. There wasn’t a scrap of paper in there, and this is all that was in his pockets.”

The nurse produced the photograph case and a business card.

Miss Frink examined them. “Yes, there’s John Ogden’s card. I could send for him, but I don’t care to have him see just what I managed to do to his protégé in a few hours. Unless the boy’s in danger, I won’t send, as yet.” Miss Frink looked long at the photograph.

“Might be his sister,” she said. “There’s a[43] resemblance. I hope it isn’t a best girl. He’s too young to be hampered.”

[43]

Leonard Grimshaw looked over her shoulder at the picture. His employer glanced at him with a humorous twist of her thin lips.

“You’ve kept free, eh, Grim?”

“I had interests which came first,” responded the secretary, with the reproving tone which he reserved for implications that he had time for any thought separate from Miss Frink’s affairs.

That lady returned the old morocco case and the card to the nurse.

“Keep careful watch,” she said, “and ask Dr. Morton to report to me at his next visit. I wish to send for Mr. Ogden if there is occasion for anxiety.”

The nurse left the room, and the secretary turned adoring eyes upon his 

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