For a moment the doctor was sorely tempted to keep the credit thus enthusiastically given; but he was too truthful for that, and so, watching her as her eyes glistened with pleased excitement, he said:
“I am glad you like them, Miss Clyde, and Mr. Remington will be glad too. He sent them to you from his conservatory.”
“Not Mr. Remington from Aikenside—not Jessie’s brother?” and Maddy’s eyes now fairly danced as they sought the doctor’s face.
“Yes, Jessie’s brother. He came here with her once. He is interested in you, and brought these down this morning to my office.”
“It was Jessie, I guess, who sent them,” Maddy suggested, but the doctor persisted that it was Guy.
“He wished me to present them with his compliments. He thought they might please you.”
“Oh! they do, they do!” Maddy replied. “They almost make me well. Tell him how much I thank him, and like him, too, though I never saw him.”
The doctor opened his lips to tell her she had seen him, but changed his mind before the words were uttered. She might not think so well of Guy, he thought, and there was no harm in withholding the truth.
So Maddy had no suspicion that the face she had thought of so much belonged to Guy Remington. She had never seen him, of course; but she hoped she should some time, so as to thank him for his generosity to her grandfather and his kindness to herself. Then, as she remembered the message she had sent him, she began to think that it sounded too familiar, and said to the doctor:
“If you please, don’t tell Mr. Remington that I said I liked him—only that I thank him. He would think it queer for a poor girl like me to send such word to him. He is very rich, and handsome, and splendid, isn’t he?”