iments, which do him the greatest
credit, he had decided on a pointed beard, a military expression, a
frock coat and a baron's title.

"Everything in his admirable establishment bore the impress of the
kind of scientific precision which is the most striking hall-mark of
ignorance. The Wiesdorf sanatorium extracted from the human carcase
the maximum amount of formulae, scientific jargon and professional
fees which it could possibly yield. The patients felt themselves
surrounded by a pleasant and luxurious apparatus of diagnoses,
figures and diagrams.

"Each patient had a suite of rooms furnished, in spite of a rather
obvious Munich atmosphere, with a sense of real comfort and order.
Each floor was under the supervision of a doctor, a lean, athletic
Swedish _masseur_ and a qualified nurse in a white apron. The nurses
were nearly all daughters of the nobility, whose happiness had been
sacrificed to the extravagance of their brothers, who were generally
captains in the Guards. The one attached to the floor I was in charge
of was a French Alsatian with an innocent, obstinate face, whom the
Germans called 'Schwester Therese,' and who asked me to call her
'Soeur Therese.'

"The place was only opened in the spring of 1914, and from the very
first season its success had testified to the excellence of the
system. Photographs were published in all the fashionable papers, and
wealthy clients rushed in with alarming and automatic rapidity.

"On my floor I had an old American, one James P. Griffith, an English
lady, the Duchess of Broadfield, and a Russian, Princess Uriassof.
None of these three patients displayed symptoms of any illness
whatsoever; they just complained of depression--nothing could amuse
them--and of an appetite which no dish could tempt. When the American
arrived, I considered it my duty to inform the professor of the
excellent health in which I found him.

"'O'Grady,' he said, staring hard at me with his brilliant,
commanding eyes, 'kindly give yourself less trouble. Your patient is
suffering from congestion of the purse, and I think we shall be able
to give him some relief.'

"The Duchess of Broadfield longed to put on flesh, and wept all day
long. 'Madam,' Sister Therese said to her, 'if you want to get
stouter, you ought to try and enjoy yourself.' That caused a nice
scene! I was obliged to explain to the nurse that the Duchess was on
no account to be spoken to before eleven in the morning, and that it