med all remembrance of his own personality, and
restored the equilibrium. One thought of the woman, and his frame had
throbbed and shivered like the forest trees in March; another, the
greater, nobler thought of his science, his sacred mission at the hands
of his Maker, and the trembling fingers grew steady.

With accuracy and judgment he inserted the shining channel into the
windpipe of the sufferer; with patience and deliberation he held the end
of the instrument in his mouth and sucked!

And all the while from the inner room came the sound of sobs--the
passionate wail of the woman who had betrayed herself, who stood
self-accused of neglecting her child. He heard the grievous sound as he
strained the poisonous mucus from the tiny throat and breathed the
death-laden air into his lungs. He knew that he swayed on the bridge
between life and eternity; that possibly--nay, probably--he should never
hear the sweet enchantment of her voice again; that if he should die it
must be without so much as a pressure from her hand; and yet the great
heart never wavered, but beat evenly like the pulse of some grand
cathedral clock, which, spite of marriage chime or funeral knell,
pursues its steadfast purpose for ever.

At last the work was over, and its reward, the free respiration of the
little sufferer, was assured. Then a feeling of dizziness crept over his
brain, and he hastened home, but not before summoning his partner to
relieve him.

When Doctor Davis arrived, he learnt from the nurse and Mrs Cameron what
had taken place. He was a practical, prosaic person, cumbered with a
delicate wife and up-growing children, and censured Danby's conduct as
foolhardy in the extreme.

"Is he bound to catch it?" asked Phoebe, with concern.

"Most certainly," replied the physician, scowling. He liked Ralph, and
thought him much too sound a fellow to be lost through idiocy. "I
believe there have been cases to the contrary--some solitary
exceptions."

"But even then," pursued she, anxiously, "he need not die? He will
recover?"

"Ten to one against it," said the doctor, bluntly, quite unconscious
that the ghastly pallor of his questioner was due to more than weary
watching by her child.

But Danby did recover. His magnificent constitution pulled him through
in a manner little short of the miraculous. Perhaps hope had some occult
healing power unknown to those who watched and tended him.

At the end of six weeks the burly "Dot" was him