that makes me want to care for you, make you well again?"
She went to him, and stood looking down on him with compassion. She must take his mind from the subject of his illness.
"I met that Minny Ware just now. She offers to come over some day and sing to you. Will you like that?"
"No," he said. "I shan't like it. I don't want her coming here. She's stupid. She's silly. I can imagine the noise she would make—stupid and silly."
On an impulse she could not restrain, Alayne said: "Meg is scheming to marry her to Renny."
His face was almost comic in its surprise. "Marry her to Renny! But why? Why should she want to marry that girl to Renny?"
His eyes, with their veiled gaze, looked into Alayne's, but she saw that his swift mind was hot on the trail of Meg's devious motives. "That girl," he repeated. "That girl. Renny. I can't see it. But wait!" The light of malicious understanding crept into his eyes. "She's afraid—that's what it is—afraid! She'd marry him to an imbecile rather than have that happen."
"Have what happen? How mysterious you are!" But her heart was beginning to beat uncomfortably.
He narrowed his eyes to two slits and peered up at her. Sunlight and leaf shadows, playing across his face, gave it a sardonic grimace. "My poor girl, don't you see? Deceased husband's brother! Meggie thinks there is a fair chance of my dying, and she's afraid you'll marry Renny. She's going to fix him up with a nice plump songstress instead. I see it all. I'll engage she'll do it. Poor Reynard. That sly red-headed fox will be helpless. She'll bait the trap with such a sleek plump pullet. And she'll lead him to it and let him sniff—God, he hasn't a chance!"
She stood looking down at him, under the flickering leaf shadows. Her face looked greenish-white. Her heart sank under a weight of apprehension. She felt that they were helpless, moved inexorably by soulless forces. They were being woven into the pattern of
