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Show 344 J'"at'd'u i liXeea{lc: GlU> 1Rose ant> Sflller time. Colonel Kent remained at home, and Doctor Jack sped away alone upon his errand. When he reached Crosby's, Juliet, clad in her best, was just leaving the house. She was outwardly cheerful, but her face still bore traces of tears. "Where were you going? " asked the Doctor, as Juliet greeted him. There was a new shyness in her manner, as of some unwonted restraint. "I was going into town. I wanted to see Aunt Francesca." She slipped easily into the habit of the others, seldom hearing the name "Madame Bernard." "I 'II take you. Here 's a note from your brother." Juliet opened it, read the fateful message, and turned white as death. "What is it?" asked the Doctor, much alarmed. In answer, she offered him the note, her hand shaking pitifully. The Doctor read it twice before he grasped the full meaning of it. "Well, I 'II be-'' he said, half to himself. Unable to stand, Juliet sat down upon the well-worn door-step and he sat down beside her. "It's all my fault," she said, solemnly. "Ramie told me this morning that I wasn't a lady, and he wanted me to be like her. He said I was a tomboy, and I told him that if I was, "Uears, 1T~Ic Uears" he'd done it himself, and he got mad and went away, and now--" Juliet burst into tears, but she had no handkerchief, so Doctor Jack gave her his. "'Tears, idle tears,'" he quoted lightly. "I say, kid, don't take it so hard." "1-1 'm not a lady," she sobbed. "You are," he assured her. "You 're the finest little lady I know." "Don't-don't," she sobbed. "Don't make fun of me. Ramie said that you were-laughing at me-yesterday-because I was-a-a tomboy!" "Kid," he said, softly, almost unmanned by a sudden tenderness quite foreign to his experience. "Oh, my dear little girl, won't you look at me? " The tone was wholly new to Juliet-<he did not know that any man could be so tender, so beautifully kind. "It's because he's a doctor," she thought. "He's used to seemg people when they don't feel right." "I'm so sorry," he was saying. "Your brother didn't mean anything by it, little girl. He was just teasing." "He wasn't," returned Juliet, wiping her eyes. "Don't you think I know when he s teasing and when he isn't? I'm not a lady; I 'm only a tomboy, and now he's gone away with her and left me all alone." "You 'II never be alone if I can help it," he 345 1ltlbollr 'flew to Juliet |