"That's dreadful," sympathized Helen, "but perhaps he isn't well, dear. Why don't you get him to see a doctor?"
Madelene shrugged her shoulders disdainfully.
"It's not a doctor he wants, it's that Skinner girl, I can see that plainly enough."
Helen dropped on the arm of the girl's chair and slipped her arm around her neck.
"Well, now you're home," she soothed. "Ebenezer'll help you if he can, and I know Deforrest will. I'm perfectly certain though, Tessibel Skinner would do nothing to make Frederick swerve from his loyalty to you."
"Do you know whether Eb went down there to see her?" asked the girl, wearily.
"I think he did. He asked Tess for Frederick's letters, but she said she hadn't received any from him. And really, I don't believe she did, for she tells everything to Deforrest and she'd tell him that, I'm sure."
Madelene shook her head incredulously.
"I feel perfectly positive he wrote her," she asserted.
"Well, perhaps!—" said Helen.