ere," he said, slightly relaxing his severe demeanor with an
encouraging smile, "I think this will do; we've stopped the bleeding. It
will probably smart a little as the plaster sets closer. I can send my
partner, Dr. Sparlow, to you in the morning."

She looked at him curiously and with a strange smile. "And zees Doctor
Sparrlow--eez he like you, M'sieu?"

"He is older, and very well known," said the young man seriously. "I can
safely recommend him."

"Ah," she repeated, with a pensive smile which made Kane think her quite
pretty. "Ah--he ez older--your Doctor Sparrlow--but YOU are strong,
M'sieu."

"And," said Kane vaguely, "he will tell you what to do."

"Ah," she repeated again softly, with the same smile, "he will tell me
what to do if I shall not know myself. Dat ez good."

Kane had already wrapped her shorn locks in a piece of spotless white
paper and tied it up with narrow white ribbon in the dainty fashion dear
to druggists' clerks. As he handed it to her she felt in her pocket and
produced a handful of gold.

"What shall I pay for zees, M'sieu?"

Kane reddened a little--solely because of his slow arithmetical
faculties. Adhesive plaster was cheap--he would like to have charged
proportionately for the exact amount he had used; but the division was
beyond him! And he lacked the trader's instinct.

"Twenty-five cents, I think," he hazarded briefly.

She started, but smiled again. "Twenty-five cents for all zees--ze
medicine, ze strips for ze head, ze hair cut"--she glanced at the paper
parcel he had given her--"it is only twenty-five cents?"

"That's all."

He selected from her outstretched palm, with some difficulty, the
exact amount, the smallest coin it held. She again looked at him
curiously--half confusedly--and moved slowly into the shop. The miner,
who was still there, retreated as before with a gaspingly apologetic
gesture--even flattening himself against the window to give her sweeping
silk flounces freer passage. As she passed into the street with a
"Merci, M'sieu, good a'night," and the hackman started from the vehicle
to receive her, the miner drew a long breath, and bringing his fist down
upon the counter, ejaculated,--

"B'gosh! She's a stunner!"

Kane, a good deal relieved at her departure and the success of his
ministration, smiled benignly.

The stranger again stared after the retreating carriage, looked around
the shop, and even into the deserted surgery, and approached the
c