In answer, she offered him the note, her hand shaking pitifully.  The
Doctor read it twice before he grasped the full meaning of it.  “Well,
I’ll be—­” he said, half to himself.

Unable to stand, Juliet sat down upon the well-worn door-step and he sat down beside her.  “It’s all my fault,” she said, solemnly.  “Romie told me this morning that I wasn’t a lady, and he wanted me to be like her.  He said I was a tomboy, and I told him that if I was, he’d done it himself, and he got mad and went away, and now—­”

Juliet burst into tears, but she had no handkerchief, so Doctor Jack gave her his.

“‘Tears, idle tears,’” he quoted lightly.  “I say, kid, don’t take it so hard.”

“I—­I’m not a lady,” she sobbed.

“You are,” he assured her.  “You’re the finest little lady I know.”

“Don’t—­don’t,” she sobbed.  “Don’t make fun of me.  Romie said that you were—­laughing at me—­yesterday-because I was—­a—­a tomboy!”

“Kid,” he said, softly, almost unmanned by a sudden tenderness quite foreign to his experience.  “Oh, my dear little girl, won’t you look at me?”

The tone was wholly new to Juliet—­she did not know that any man could be so tender, so beautifully kind.  “It’s because he’s a doctor,” she thought.  “He’s used to seeing people when they don’t feel right.”

“I’m so sorry,” he was saying.  “Your brother didn’t mean anything by it, little girl.  He was just teasing.”

“He wasn’t,” returned Juliet, wiping her eyes.  “Don’t you think I know when he’s teasing and when he isn’t?  I’m not a lady; I’m only a tomboy, and now he’s gone away with her and left me all alone.”

“You’ll never be alone if I can help it,” he assured her, fervently.  “Look here, do you suppose you could ever learn to like me?”

“Why, I like you now—­I’ve always liked you.”

“I know, but I don’t mean that.  Do you think you could ever like me a whole lot?  Enough to marry me, I mean?”

“Why, I don’t know—­I never thought—­” Juliet’s voice trailed off into an inarticulate murmur of astonishment.

“Won’t you try?” he pleaded.  “Oh, Juliet, I’ve loved you ever since I first saw you!”

The high colour surged into her face.  He was not joking—­he meant every word.  Even Juliet could see that.

“Won’t you try, dear?  That’s all I’ll ask for, now.”

“Why, yes,” she said, her wide blue eyes fixed upon his.  “I’d try almost anything—­for you, but I’m only a tomboy.”

Doctor Jack caught her cold little hands in his.  “Kiss me,” he said, huskily.

Juliet’s face burned, but she lifted her lips to his, obediently and simply as a child.  The man hesitated for an instant, then pushed her away from him; not unkindly, but firmly.

“No, I won’t take it, Princess,” he said, in a strange tone.  “I’ll wait until you wake up.”  “I’m—­not asleep,” she stammered.

“You are in some ways.”  Then he added, irrelevantly, “Thank God!”