cept as a looker-on. No man could
assist Thenard in an operation who was not broken to the job, for, when
operating Thenard became quite a different person to the every-day Thenard
of lecture room and hospital ward.

That harsh voice which we noticed in him in the first pages of this book
when on entering the lecture room of the Beaujon he could not find his
coloured chalks, came out during an operation, and he would curse his
assistant to the face for the slightest fault or fancied fault, and he
would speak to the nurses as no Frenchman ever spoke to Frenchwoman unless
with deliberate intent to insult. When the last stitch was in, all this
changed; nurses and assistant forgot what had been said, and in the ease
of released tension, worshipped more than ever the cadaverous genius who
was now unwinding from his head and mouth the antiseptic gauze in which he
always veiled them when operating.

The clock on the mantel pointed to a few minutes past the hour, when the
door opened, and Adams came in.

Maxine rose to meet him.

She read both good and bad news in his face.

"The operation has been successful, but there is great weakness." He
rolled an armchair for her to sit down, and then he told her as much as
she could understand.

Thenard had found a slight depression of the inner table of the skull, and
some congestion and thickening of the dura mater. It all dated from the
accident. There would, without doubt, have been severe inflammation of the
brain, but for Berselius's splendid condition at the time of the accident,
and the fact that Adams had bled him within an hour of the injury. Thenard
had relieved the pressure by operation, but there was great weakness.

It was impossible to say what the result would be yet.

"Has he regained consciousness?"

"He is just recovering from the anaesthetic."

The girl was silent for a moment, then she asked where Thenard was.

"He has left. He has to operate again to-night on a case which has just
called for him by telephone. He asked me to tell you that everything
possible has been done. He will call in the morning, and he has left
everything till then in my hands."

"I shall not go to bed," said Maxine. "I could not sleep, and should my
father want to see me, I shall be ready."

"Yes," said Adams, "perhaps it will be better so. I will go up and stay
with him, and I will call you if it is necessary."

He left the room, and Maxine took up the book she had dropped, bu