But she protested that she had only come for a few minutes to ask

about David. "I must go right home," she said nervously.

"No, no. You can't get away,--oh!" he broke off excitedly--"here he

is!" Dr. Lavendar's eagerness at the sight of the little boy who came

running up the garden path, his hurry to open the front door and bring

him into the study to present him to Mrs. Richie, fussing and proud

and a little tremulous, would have touched her, if she had noticed

him. But she did not notice him,--the child absorbed her. She could

not leave him. Before she knew it she found herself taking off her

bonnet and saying she would stay to tea.

"David," said Dr. Lavendar, "I've got a bone in my leg; so you run and

get me a clean pocket-handkerchief."

"Can I go up-stairs like a crocodile?" said David.

"Certainly, if it affords you the slightest personal satisfaction,"

Dr. Lavendar told him; and while the little boy crawled laboriously on

his stomach all the way up-stairs, Dr. Lavendar talked about him. He

said he thought the child had been homesick just at first; he had

missed his sister Janey. "He told me 'Janey' gave him 'forty kisses'

every night," said Dr. Lavendar; "I thought that told a story--" At

that moment the crocodile, holding a handkerchief between his teeth,

came rapidly, head foremost, down-stairs. Dr. Lavendar raised a

cautioning hand;--"Mustn't talk about him, now!"

There was a quality in that evening that was new to Helena; it was

dull, of course;--how very dull Lloyd would have found it! A childlike

old man asking questions with serious simplicity of a little boy who

was full of his own important interests and anxieties;--the feeding of

Danny, and the regretful wonder that in heaven, the little dog would

not be "let in."

"Who said he wouldn't?" Dr. Lavendar demanded, fiercely, while Danny

yawned with embarrassment at hearing his own name.

"You read about heaven in the Bible," David said, suddenly shy; "an'

it said outside were dogs;--an' some other animals I can't remember

the names of."

Dr. Lavendar explained with a twinkle that shared with his visitor the

humor of those "other animals" itemized in the Revelations. It was a

very mild humor; everything was mild at the Rectory; the very air

seemed gentle! There was no apprehension, no excitement, no

antagonism; only the placid commonplace of goodness and affection.

Helena could not remember such an evening in all her life. And the

friendship between youth and age was something she had never dreamed

of. She saw David slip from his chair at table, and run around to Dr.

Lavendar's side to reach up and whisper in his ear,--oh, if he would

but put his cheek against hers, and whisper in her ear!




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