Susanne, Mrs. Ordway's maid, though modestly in the background, was rarely out of sight; and a white-capped nurse, till now an occasional and illusive vision in the halls, blew in and out of the sick-room like a breeze, bringing liquids in glasses, which the patient obediently swallowed. Laurie, his attention once caught, took it all in. But his face gave no hint of his new knowledge, and the eyes of Louise still met his with the challenge they turned on every one these days--a challenge that definitely forbade either understanding or sympathy.
"The real problem is why you ever come." She spoke lightly, but looked at him with genuine affection. Laurie was one of her favorites, her prime favorite, indeed, next to Bob and Barbara. He smiled at her with tender significance.
"I do," she agreed, "perfectly. I know you're quite capable of flirting with me, too, if I'd let you, you absurd boy. Laurie,"--for a moment or two she was almost serious--"why don't you fall in love?"
"Don't be foolish. You know I like your ties," she interpolated kindly. "But, really, isn't there some one?"
Laurie turned his profile to her, pulled a lock of hair over his brow, clasped his hands between his knees, and posed esthetically.
"Do you know," he sighed, "I begin to think that, just possibly, perhaps, there's a slight chance--that there is!"
"Well, she's a girl." He produced this confidence with ponderous solemnity. "She lives across the square from me," he added.
"Things brighten," commented Louise, drily. "Go on."
"She's mysterious. I don't know who she is, or anything about her. But I know that she's in trouble."
"Of course she is! I have never known a mysterious maiden that wasn't," commented the woman of the world. "What's her particular variety of trouble?"
"That's hard to say," he brought out at last. "But it appears to be mixed up with an offensive person in a crumpled blue suit who answers to the name of Herbert Ransome Shaw. Have you ever heard of him?"
"Never, I'm happy to say. But he doesn't sound attractive. However, tell me all about them. There seems a good chance that they may get you into trouble."
"It's the one gleam of intelligence I see in the situation," commented his candid friend. "Is she pretty?"