“I hadn’t thought of that,” answered his wife, her bright face clouding.  “I dare say he won’t like it at all, but I don’t see that we can let him decide it.  Perhaps it may do him good in the end.”

“Well, I shall leave you to settle it with him,” said Mr. Hamilton rising from the table.  “For some reason nothing I say seems to make much of an impression on him nowadays.”

“I must say that I get dreadfully discouraged, too,” confessed his wife.  “He is so hopelessly indifferent to everything he used to like; he utterly refuses to see one of the boys or girls, and he sits for hours at a time doing absolutely nothing.  I can see that the doctor is really anxious about him,” she continued.

“Keep up your courage, dear,” said Mr. Hamilton with more cheerfulness than he felt.  “Perhaps we shall find a way out of it soon.”

“I’ll go up now and tell Arthur about Ruth,” said Mrs. Hamilton as she said goodbye to her husband in the hall.  “That will give him something to think of, whether he likes the prospect or not.”

As Mrs. Hamilton entered the little sitting-room which used to be the pride of her son’s heart, it was so full of warmth and light and brightness that, for a moment, in spite of herself, she felt as if she must see the cheery boy of six months before.  Everything so suggested him, and it was so clearly the room of a boy who loved all kinds of outdoor exercise.  A pair of tennis racquets crossed on the wall had evidently resigned their place for the time being to the golf clubs which stood in one comer.  A couple of paddles occupied another comer, and rigged on the wall near the door was a complicated arrangement of ropes, pulleys and weights designed to exercise every muscle in the human body.  Mrs. Hamilton sighed involuntarily as her eye rested on a silver cup which stood proudly on the centre table, a mute witness to the prowess of its owner.  It was the prize for a hundred yard dash in which Arthur had borne off the honors.

“He’ll never be able to do that again, poor laddie,” she said to herself, as she waited a moment to brush the tears from her eyes before opening the door into the next room.

“Good-morning, dear boy,” she said brightly, as she entered a room which seemed doubly gloomy to her after the brightness of the one she had left.  “You should provide a boy with a torch so that your visitors can see to get across the room.  What ho! have I found you at last?” she continued, as she took her son’s hand in a tender grasp and gave him a good-morning kiss.

“Do let’s have some sunshine, Arthur,” she said, putting up the curtain and letting in a flood of light.  “There, now I feel more at home.  Why don’t you get the benefit of the morning sunshine?”

“I don’t like to look out just at this time in the morning, mother,” he answered briefly.

Mrs. Hamilton understood in a flash, for just as they were speaking a gay group of boys and girls had passed the window, and Arthur, who had turned involuntarily to look at them, had closed his eyes quickly as though to shut out the pleasant sight.