Watching her face he laid the parcel in her hand. "Don't open it till I'm gone. I had something of a time to get it. The old fellow was as obstinate as a mule when he saw that my heart was set on it. Mother hadn't a thing old enough—I ransacked everywhere—if I'd had time to go to grandmother's I might have done better. She's ninety-three, you know, and has some of her grandmother's things. This thing isn't a beauty to look at, but it's old, and that's the chief consideration. Extreme old age will compensate for its ugliness; which is an extenuation that I haven't for mine. I'm going to-morrow."
"Oh, I want to see it," she exclaimed, not regarding his last remark.
"That's all you care," he said, disappointedly. "I thought you would be sorry that I'm going."
"You know I am," she returned penitently, picking at the yellow cord.
"Perhaps when I am two hundred years old you'll be as anxious to look at me as you are to look at that!"
"Oh, Hollis, I do thank you so."
"But you must promise me two things or you can't have it!"
"I'll promise twenty."
"Two will do until next time. First, will you go and see my mother as soon as you get well, and go often?"
"That's too easy; I want to do something hard for you," she answered earnestly.