"But he could not work—he is ill?" said Bess.
"Still, you see, he could keep among the men he had classed himself with, and that is his idea of duty. I let mother know I had found him in spite of his 'ideas,' but I did not tell her much more."
"Will he not go home with you?" asked Hazel.
"He has promised to give up cooking by October first. Then I am going to collect him."
"What an interesting young man he must be," remarked Belle, to whom the story had already brought some brightness.
"Oh, indeed he is," declared Miss Robbins. "He is younger than I, and when I went to college he promised to do all sorts of stunts to prove my problems. He even wanted to try living, or dying, on one sort of food; wanted to remain up without sleeping until he fell over; wanted to sleep in dark cellars to see what effect that would have; in fact, I thought we would have to lock him up with a bodyguard to save his life, he was so enthusiastic about my profession. And as to anti-vivisection! Why, at one time he had twenty-five cats and four dogs in our small city yard to save them from the possible fate of some of their kind. I tell you, we had our hands full with pretty Leland."
"I should love him," said Belle suddenly and emphatically.
Every one laughed. It was actually the first real smile that had broken the sadness of their lives in that long, dreary week. Belle returned the charge with a contemptuous glance.
"I mean, of course, I should love him as a friend of humanity," she answered.
"Cats and dogs!" exclaimed Betty.