ng at the carpet.
"I do not like his extreme weakness. His pulse is bad, very bad. He
needs boosting up."

"Why, doctor, I thought he was doing so well! I ... that is,
considering he's over seventy and all that, it seemed to me that..."

Her voice trailed off, blighted by the brief scorn with which he
glanced at her before continuing steadily:

"We must put some strength into him--if we can. Iron and arsenic ..."

"Oh, yes, doctor, certainly--injections."

"There are two things we have to fear now," he continued didactically,
still in a whisper. "One is his general condition of weakness, the
other is--excitement. He mustn't be upset in any way--or startled."

"No, of course not: I'll be very careful."

She wondered a little that he should a second time lay such stress on
the matter of excitement. He seemed to have little confidence in her,
but that, she suspected, might be owing to his low opinion of women in
general.

"That is all. I'd better give him an injection now, I think."

"Yes, doctor."

She brought the usual accessories--a basin of water, cotton-wool,
iodine--and placed them on the little table by the bed, feeling a
sudden grave doubt about her patient. Had she been too optimistic? If
she had, then so had the night-nurse, who only last evening had
remarked to her how well the old man was going on. Yet she was
impressed by the doctor's ability to discern things hidden from her
eyes. Perhaps all along he had regarded it as a losing fight.

"Now then, nurse, help me to get Sir Charles over on his left side."

The invalid did not demur, merely made a grimace as the needle shot
into his emaciated thigh. With the basin in one hand and a wad of
cotton-wool in the other, Esther happened to glance at the doctor. He
was stooping over, his thick body bent at the hips, his small eyes
narrowed in cold absorption as he watched the mixture run through the
needle into the flesh. Suddenly her eyes grew round, she stared
fascinated. Something stirred in her memory, a suggestion that was
horrible, frightening. What was it? Ah, now she knew: her
nightmare--the python! He reminded her of a python.

"Good God! nurse, what are you about?"

The basin had fallen from her shaking hand to the floor. How stupid of
her! She was on her knees in an instant, confused, apologetic, mopping
up the puddle with a towel.

"I can't think how it happened," she stammered, feeling an utter fool,
and conscious of