She laughed at his enthusiasm, and he suddenly recollected himself and entreated her to keep calm.
"If Jim knew I had made you laugh, he'd kick me to a jelly, and give you a blue pill."
Whereat she laughed a little more. "That would be more like Max than
Daddy Jim." And there suddenly she stopped short, the colour flooding
her pale face. "Why," she said, frowning confusedly, "I had forgotten
Max too. How is Max?"
"He's all right," said Nick lightly. "Shall I give him your love?"
"Oh, no!" she said quickly. "Don't give him anything of mine!
He—wouldn't understand."
"All right, my chicken," said Nick, with cheery unconcern. "He's got a little brother in the East by the way. I wonder if we shall run across him."
She did not echo the wonder. Her forehead was drawn in the old, painful lines, and she scarcely responded to the rest of his airy conversation.
When Dr. Jim visited her later in the evening he grunted disapproval.
"What's the matter now?" he asked her, with keen eyes on her troubled face.
"I don't know," she murmured wistfully.