“Everything?” repeated the Doctor, with lifted brows.  “And where does Jonathan Ebenezer Middlekauffer come in, to say nothing of the future Mrs. Kent?”

Allison’s face clouded for an instant.  “I’ll never forget what you’ve done for me, but there isn’t any future Mrs. Kent.”

“No?  Why I thought—­”

“So did I, but she’s thrown me over and gone away.  This morning she sent me a note of congratulation and farewell.”

“Upon my word!  What have you done to her?”

“Nothing.  She says I don’t need her any more now, so she’s going away.”

Doctor Jack paced back and forth on the veranda with his hands in his pockets.  “The darkly mysterious ways of the ever-feminine are wonderful beyond the power of words to portray.  Apparently you’ve had to choose between your hand and hers.”

“I’m not sure,” returned Allison, thoughtfully, “that I wouldn’t rather have hers than mine.”

“Brace up, old man.  Get well and go after her.  The world isn’t big enough to keep a man away from the woman he wants.”

“But,” answered Allison, dejectedly, “she doesn’t care for me.  It was only womanly pity, and now that I don’t need that, I’ve lost her.”

“She doesn’t care for you!” repeated the Doctor.  “Why, man, how can you sit there and tell a lie like that?  Of course she cares!”

Allison turned to look at him in astonishment.  “It isn’t possible!”

“Isn’t it?  Then I don’t know anything about human nature, though I must confess I’m not up much on the feminine part of it.  How long—­”

“Just since the accident.  The girl I was going to marry let me release her.  She didn’t want a cripple, you know.”

“And Miss Bernard did, and you’ve disappointed her?”

“Something like that.”

“You seem to have had fierce luck with girls.  One gives you up because you’ve only got one hand, and the other because you’ve got two.  There’s no pleasing women.  Hello—­here comes another note.  Maybe she’s changed her mind.”

For a breathless instant Allison thought so, too, but Doctor Jack was opening it.  “Mine,” he said.  “It’s an invitation to Crosby’s.  It seems that they come of age day after to-morrow, and I’m invited out to supper to help celebrate.  I won’t go, or anything, will I?  Oh, no, of course not!  I haven’t seen ’em for a week.  Are presents expected?”

“Your presence seems to be expected,” remarked Allison.

“I’m glad you’ve got that out of your system,” the Doctor retorted, with a scornful smile.  “You ought to improve right along now.”

“Is it a party?”

“They don’t say so.  I hope it isn’t.”

However, when Doctor Jack strolled up the dusty road, a carriage that must have come from Crosby’s passed him.  He stopped short, wildly considering an impulse of flight.  Then he went on bravely, smiling at the thought that any entertainment given by the twins could be by any possibility, a formal affair.