nd
kindly feelings. In a like manner do those dwellers in the shadow of a
volcano continue to boast of their safety and the harmlessness of the
crater up to the very hour of its eruption. And all the while the gray
wisp of a woman by the door sat silent, her hands still folded on her
lap.

At last the President rose; he coughed twice before speaking. "I think
we will call upon the hospital committee now for their reports.
Afterward we will take up the question of the incurable ward among the
trustees--hmm--alone."

Every one sat quietly, almost listlessly, during the reading until
Margaret MacLean rose, the report for Ward C in her hand. Then there
came a raising of heads and a stiffening of backs and a setting of
chins. She was very calm, the still calm of the China Sea before a
typhoon strikes it; when she had finished reading she put the report on
the chair back of her and faced the President with clasped hands and--a
smile.

"It's funny," she said, irrelevantly, "for the first time in my life I
am not afraid here."

And the House Surgeon muttered, under his breath: "Great guns! That
mind-string has snapped."

"There is more to the report than I had the courage to write down when
I was making it out; but I can give it very easily now, if you will not
mind listening a little longer. You have always thought that I came
back to Saint Margaret's because I felt grateful for what you had done
for me--for the food and the clothes and the care, and later for the
education that you paid for. This isn't true. I am grateful--very
grateful--but it is a dutiful kind of gratitude which wouldn't have
brought me back in a thousand years. I am so sorry to feel this way.
Perhaps I would not if, in all the years that I was here as a child,
one of you had shown me a single personal kindness, or some one had
thought to send me a letter or a message while I was away at school.
No, you took care of me because you thought it was your duty, and I am
grateful for the same reason; but it was quite another thing which
brought me back to Saint Margaret's."

The smile had gone; she was very sober now. And the House Surgeon,
still watching the two profiles, suddenly felt his heart settle down to
a single steady beat. He wanted to get up that very instant and tell
the nurse in charge of Ward C what had happened and what he thought of
her; but instead he dug his hands deep in his pockets. How in the name
of the seven continents