, a poor
little daughter!"

A silence fell; for what could words avail in such a situation? Hearing
the door open, Madame Dupont started, for her nerves were all a-quiver
with the strain she had been under. A servant came in and spoke to her,
and she said to George, "It is the doctor. If you need me, I shall be in
the next room."

Her son stood trembling, as if he were waiting the approach of an
executioner. The other came into the room without seeing him and he
stood for a minute, clasping and unclasping his hands, almost overcome
with emotion. Then he said, "Good-day, doctor." As the man stared at
him, surprised and puzzled, he added, "You don't recognize me?"

The doctor looked again, more closely. George was expecting him to break
out in rage; but instead his voice fell low. "You!" he exclaimed. "It is
you!"

At last, in a voice of discouragement than of anger, he went on, "You
got married, and you have a child! After all that I told you! You are a
wretch!"

"Sir," cried George, "let me explain to you!"

"Not a word!" exclaimed the other. "There can be no explanation for what
you have done."

A silence followed. The young man did not know what to say. Finally,
stretching out his arms, he pleaded, "You will take care of my little
daughter all the same, will you not?"

The other turned away with disgust. "Imbecile!" he said.

George did not hear the word. "I was able to wait only six months," he
murmured.

The doctor answered in a voice of cold self-repression, "That is enough,
sir! All that does not concern me. I have done wrong even to let you see
my indignation. I should have left you to judge yourself. I have nothing
to do here but with the present and with the future--with the infant and
with the nurse."

"She isn't in danger?" cried George.

"The nurse is in danger of being contaminated."

But George had not been thinking about the nurse. "I mean my child," he
said.

"Just at present the symptoms are not disturbing."

George waited; after a while he began, "You were saying about the nurse.
Will you consent that I call my mother? She knows better than I."

"As you wish," was the reply.

The young man started to the door, but came back, in terrible distress.
"I have one prayer to offer you sir; arrange it so that my wife--so that
no one will know. If my wife learned that it is I who am the cause--! It
is for her that I implore you! She--she isn't to blame."

Said the doctor: "I will do eve