or there was so much of some other kind of disease about. A slight loss of color, or quite as readily, a slight heightening of color, would remind the old lady of the way in which the woman next door had begun to go down hill the winter she died of tuberculosis. A stomach ache suggested cancer. A headache always contained the possibility of mastoiditis. There was scarcely any change in the bodily condition of Mrs. Sullivan which did not bring to her mother the message of serious illness.
In such an environment it would truly have been a strong will that could have resisted the temptation to be delicate. It was suggested, therefore, that a place in a home for the aged be found for Mrs. Sullivan's mother. This advice was followed, and Mrs. Sullivan, freed from the ever-present suggestion of ill-health, began to take an interest in other things. She regained her strength. Her housekeeping correspondingly improved, and her husband was able successfully to meet the requirements of the new job which he had obtained. Neither Mr. Sullivan nor Mrs. Sullivan had sensed the cause of their trouble, and the social worker herself had not discovered it until she had become intimately acquainted with
