Company generally gathered in the front part, but the backroom was equally pleasant, as it opened into the flower-garden through a balcony shaded by vines.
"Come in here, and rest awhile," said the doctor, leading me into the back parlor; "it will be a pleasant surprise to Mrs.Linwood.I did not tell her I was going to bring you down." As we entered, I saw Ernest Linwood half reclining on a lounge with a book in his hand, which hung listlessly at his side.

As he looked up, his pale face lighted suddenly and brilliantly as burning gas.

He rose, threw down his book, came hastily forward, took my hand, and drawing it from the doctor's arm, twined it round his own.
"How well you look!" he exclaimed.

"Dr.Harlowe, we owe you ten thousand thanks." "This is a strange way of showing it," said the doctor, looking round him with a comical expression, "to deprive me of my companion, and leave me as lonely as Simon Stylites on the top of his pillar." Mrs.Linwood and Edith, who had seen our entrance, came forward and congratulated me on my convalescence.

It was the first time I had ever been ill, and the pleasure of being released from durance was like that of a weary child let loose from school.