ll have something to drink, then we will go to bed, and God grant we
don't have a night call."

After Gordon had drank his face lightened somewhat, still he looked
years older than he had done at dinner time, with that awful aging of
the soul, which sometimes comes in an instant. When finally he went
upstairs James noticed how feebly he moved. It was on his tongue's end
to offer to assist him, but he did not dare.

The next morning, before James was up, he heard the rapid trot of a
horse on the drive, and wondered if Doctor Gordon had had a call so
early. When the breakfast-bell rang only Clemency was at the table. The
maid had returned in season to get breakfast, and was waiting with a
severely interrogative face.

She had noticed blood on the frozen surface of the drive and had stood
surveying it before she entered. She had asked Clemency if anything had
happened, and the girl had told her that a man had fallen near the
office door on the preceding evening and been injured, and Doctor Gordon
had taken him home.

"What's the man's name?" Emma had inquired sharply.

"I don't know," said Clemency, and indeed she did not know, but there
was something secretive in her manner. Emma set her mouth hard and
tossed her head. Curiosity was almost a lust with her. She was always
enraged when it was excited and not gratified.

When James entered, she glanced severely at him and then at Clemency, as
she passed the muffins. She suspected something between them, and she
was baffled there.

"Has Doctor Gordon gone out?" James asked.

"Yes, he went right out as soon as he got up. Just had a cup of coffee;
wouldn't wait for breakfast," replied Emma in a nipping tone.

Neither Clemency nor James made any comment. Both knew where he had
gone, and Emma, seeing that they both knew, grew more hostile than
ever. Her manner of serving the beefsteak was fairly warlike.

After breakfast Aaron told James of some parting instructions which
Gordon had left with him. He had the team harnessed, and was to take
James to visit certain patients.

James went off on a long drive across the country, calling on his way at
the scattered houses of the patients. He did not return until noon, just
before the luncheon-bell rang. Entering by the office door he found
Gordon sitting before the hearth-fire, smoking, and staring gloomily at
the leaping flames. He looked up when James entered, said good morning
in an abstracted fashion, and asked some que