"I should be an idiot if I didn't."
"Do you mean to say she is out of her wheeled chair?""No chairs for her now.When she wishes to walk she walks.""Then she always could!"declared Mrs.Evringham.
"I think you know better than that,"returned the other calmly.
"How long since?"asked Mrs.Evringham.
"Three months."
Silence.
"Aren't you glad for her?"asked Bonnell with a slight smile of curiosity into the disturbed face."I ought to have told you at first that osteopathy did it;then after your joy had subsided,break the truth gently.""Of course I'm glad,"returned the other stiffly,"but I'd rather Eloise did not hear of it at once.""May I know why?"
"Certainly.We have a very dear friend who is a physician.It looks very much as if he might be something nearer than a friend.It is he with whom Eloise is riding this afternoon.It is very distasteful,naturally,to have these alleged cures discussed in our family.We have had some annoyance in that line already.You can understand how doctors must feel.""Yes,so long as they believe a cure to be only alleged;but where one is convinced that previously hopeless conditions have been healed,and it does happen once in a while,they are glad of it,I'm confident.We haven't a finer,broader minded class of men in our country than our physicians.""I think so,"agreed Mrs.Evringham,drawing herself up with a fleeting vision of the Ballard place on Mountain Avenue.
"But they are not the wealthiest at the start,"said Nat."Is it possible that you are allowing Eloise to ride unchaperoned with a young physician?"Mrs.Evringham did not remark the threatening curves at the corners of the speaker's lips.
"Oh,this one is different,"she returned seriously;"very fine connections,and substantial in everyway."Her companion threw back his head and laughed frankly.
"We have to smile at each other once in a while,don't we,Mrs.