The doctor’s daughter looked past me across the road.  “I wish I were a man,” said she, “and could go off as I pleased, as you do!  It must be delightfully independent.”

I was about to remark that too much independence is not altogether delightful, but she suddenly spoke: 

“You carry very little with you for a long journey,” and as she said this she grasped the pickets of the gate more tightly.  I could see the contraction of the muscles of her white hands.  It seemed as if she were restraining something.

“Oh, this isn’t all my baggage,” I replied.  “I sent on a large bag to Waterton.  I suppose I shall be there in a couple of days, and then I shall forward the bag to some other place.”

“I do not suppose you have packed up any medicine among your other things?” she asked.  “You don’t look as if you very often needed medicine.”

I laughed as I replied that in the course of my life I had taken but little.

“But if your cycle starts off rolling early in the morning,” she said, “or keeps on late in the evening, you ought to be able to defend yourself against malaria.  I do not know what sort of a country Cathay may be, but I should not be a bit surprised if you found it full of mists and morning vapors.  Malaria has a fancy for strong people, you know.  Just wait here a minute, please,” and with that she turned and ran into the house.

I had liked the doctor’s daughter ever since I had begun to know her, although at first I had found it a little hard to become acquainted with her.

She was the treasurer of the literary society of the village, and I was its secretary.  We had to work together sometimes, and I found her a very straightforward girl in her accounts and in every other way.

In about a minute she returned, carrying a little pasteboard box.

“Here are some one-grain quinine capsules,” she said.  “They have no taste, and I am quite sure that if you get into a low country it would be a good thing for you to take at least one of them every morning.  People may have given you all sorts of things for your journey, but I do not believe any one has given you this.”  And she handed me the box over the top of the gate.

I did not say that her practical little present was the only thing that anybody had given me, but I thanked her very heartily, and assured her that I would take one every time I thought I needed it.  Then, as it seemed proper to do so, I straightened up my bicycle as if I would mount it.  Again her fingers clutched the top of the two palings.

“When father comes home,” she said, “he will be sorry to find that he had not a chance to bid you good-bye.  And, by-the-way,” she added, quickly, “you know there will be one more meeting of the society.  Did you write out any minutes for the last evening, and would you like me to read them for you?”

“Upon my word!” I exclaimed.  “I have forgotten all about it.  I made some rough notes, but I have written nothing.”