, and----"
she broke off with a gallant effort at a smile. "I guess young fellows
aren't so different nowadays than they were when you were growing up,
sir. Only today we don't believe in sprinkling perfume in the family
cesspool. Ned cheated, that's the bald truth of it; he didn't stop
loving me, and he hasn't stopped now, but I wasn't there and that
other girl was, and there were no conventions to be recognized. Now
he's fairly melting with remorse, says he's not worthy of me--wants to
break off our engagement, while he spends a lifetime doing penance for
a moment's folly."

"But good heavens," I expostulated, "if you're willing to forgive----"

"You're telling me!" she answered bitterly. "We've been over it a
hundred times. This isn't 1892; even nice girls know the facts of life
today, and while I'm no more anxious than the next one to put through
a deal in shopworn goods, I still love Ned, and I don't intend to let
a single indiscretion rob us of our happiness. I----" the hard
exterior veneer of modernism melted from her like an autumn ice-glaze
melting in the warm October sun, and the tears coursed down her
cheeks, cutting little valleys in her carefully-applied make-up. "He's
my man, Doctor," she sobbed bitterly. "I've loved him since we made
mud-pies together; I'm hungry, thirsty for him. He's everything to me,
and if he follows out this fool renunciation he seems set on, it'll
kill me!"

De Grandin tweaked a waxed mustache-end thoughtfully. "You exemplify
the practicality of woman, _Mademoiselle_; I applaud your sound, hard
common sense," he told her. "Bring this silly young romantic foolish
one to me. I will tell him----"

"But he won't come," I interrupted. "I know these hard-minded young
asses. When a lad is set on being stubborn----"

"Will you go to work on him if I can get him here?" interjected Nella.

"Of a certitude, _Mademoiselle_."

"You won't think me forward or unmaidenly?"

"This is a medical consultation, _Mademoiselle_."

"All right; be in the office this time tomorrow night. I'll have my
wandering boy friend here if I have to bring him in an ambulance."

* * * * *

Her performance matched her promise almost too closely for our
comfort. We had just finished dinner next night when the frenzied
shriek of tortured brakes, followed by a crash and the tinkling
spatter of smashed glass, sounded in the street before the house, and
in a moment feet dragged hea