"Ran away?" asked Hazel.
"Well, we thought at first he was drowned, for he used to sit for hours on the beach talking to fishermen. But I never thought he had met with any such misfortune. Leland is one of the individuals born to live. He is too healthy, too splendid, a chap to up and die. Of course, mother thought he must be dead, or he would not keep her in anxiety, but that is the way these reformer minds usually work—spare your own and lose the cause."
"And what did happen?" asked Betty, all interested.
"I happened to find him. There he lay, with his wonderful blond hair burned in ugly spots, and his baby complexion almost——"
"Oh! are all his good looks gone?" gasped Belle—she who always stood up for the beautiful in everything, even in young men.
"I hope not gone forever," said the doctor, "but, indeed, poor boy, he had a narrow escape."
"But whatever took him into the kitchen?" asked Bess.
"He went down there among the foreigners to study actual conditions. Did you ever hear of anything so idiotic? But that is his hobby. He has been into all kinds of labor during these three long, sorrowful years."
"And you were helping your own brother! And we—blamed you!" It was
Belle who spoke.
"I could not blame you for so doing. I had been enjoined to secrecy the very moment poor Leland laid his eyes on me. He begged me not even to send word to mother, as he said it would spoil the research of an entire year if he had to stop his work before the summer was entirely over."