He refused to go to a hospital, but pathetically begged to be taken to his old rooms at Mrs. Gray’s.

With all the unhappy loneliness of a sick boy, he craved the care and companionship of those who seemed a part of his own.  Dr. Lotless had them transform a small bedchamber into a model operating room and Monty took no small satisfaction in the thought that if he was to be denied the privilege of spending money for several weeks, he would at least make his illness as expensive as possible.  A consultation of eminent surgeons was called, but true to his colors, Brewster installed Dr. Lotless, a “Little Son,” as his house surgeon.  Monty grimly bore the pain and suffering and submitted to the operation which alone could save his life.  Then came the struggle, then the promise of victory and then the quiet days of convalescence.  In the little room where he had dreamed his boyish dreams and suffered his boyish sorrows, he struggled against death and gradually emerged from the mists of lassitude.  He found it harder than he had thought to come back to life.  The burden of it all seemed heavy.  The trained nurses found that some more powerful stimulant than the medicine was needed to awaken his ambition, and they discovered it at last in Peggy.

“Child,” he said to her the first time she was permitted to see him, and his eyes had lights in them:  “do you know, this isn’t such a bad old world after all.  Sometimes as I’ve lain here, it has looked twisted and queer.  But there are things that straighten it out.  To-day I feel as though I had a place in it—­as though I could fight things and win out.  What do you think, Peggy?  Do you suppose there is something that I could do?  You know what I mean—­ something that some one else would not do a thousand times better.”

But Peggy, to whom this chastened mood in Monty was infinitely pathetic, would not let him talk.  She soothed him and cheered him and touched his hair with her cool hands.  And then she left him to think and brood and dream.

It was many days before his turbulent mind drifted to the subject of money, but suddenly he found himself hoping that the surgeons would be generous with their charges.  He almost suffered a relapse when Lotless, visibly distressed, informed him that the total amount would reach three thousand dollars.

“And what is the additional charge for the operation?” asked Monty, unwilling to accept such unwarranted favors.

“It’s included in the three thousand,” said Lotless.  “They knew you were my friend and it was professional etiquette to help keep down expenses.”

For days Brewster remained at Mrs. Gray’s, happy in its restfulness, serene under the charm of Peggy’s presence, and satisfied to be hopelessly behind in his daily expense account.  The interest shown by the inquiries at the house and the anxiety of his friends were soothing to the profligate.  It gave him back a little of his lost self-respect.  The doctors finally decided that he would best recuperate in Florida, and advised a month at least in the warmth.  He leaped at the proposition, but took the law into his own hands by ordering General Manager Harrison to rent a place, and insisting that he needed the companionship of Peggy and Mrs. Gray.