for the moment till she
quiets down. I will see what can be done. There is a mental home near
Grasse where I believe they would take her; I can telephone and find
out. They would keep her under observation until we can get in touch
with her people."

"Oh, doctor, do you really think that will be necessary?" asked Miss
Clifford regretfully.

She had just come out of Therese's room bringing a rose taffeta quilt
to throw over the shivering girl. Roger made an impatient sign to the
others to be careful what they said, but to his relief Esther appeared
not to hear. He himself was peculiarly upset by the doctor's
matter-of-fact reference to the mental home, and on the spot he
resolved firmly to defeat any arrangements that might be made for
placing the girl where she could be kept "under observation." Yet what
ought one to do? She was clearly in need of medical attention. She
seemed now to be delirious, babbling incoherently, repeating in an
undertone and in that strange hoarse voice fragments of words and
phrases that in spite of their wildness arrested his attention.
Listening closely to her he thought that all the happenings of the past
two months of her life had become interwoven into the fabric of her
delusion. Such words as "typhoid," "toxin," "hypodermic," "bandage,"
recurred again and again, then "culture"--she was back in the doctor's
laboratory now, without doubt, watching his experiments. Suddenly a
name caught his ear, he bent closer. What was this she was saying
about Holliday? Holliday? How did he come into it? A low, frightened
whisper followed; he had to strain his ears to catch it: "_She wanted
the money now, you know, so she could keep him with her!_"

He stared at the girl searchingly. Her eyes were closed, she had the
look of complete exhaustion. He could almost not believe she had
spoken those significant words. Did she know what she was saying? Was
it mere accident that her last sentence had sounded so astonishingly
rational?

Still keeping one arm beneath her shoulders he once more looked around
and took a cautious survey of the other end of the room. Therese was
no longer to be seen; she must have slipped out, but his aunt was
saying something in an anxious undertone to the doctor, who at that
moment had moved nearer the fireplace. Watching narrowly Roger noticed
the big man put out his hand towards the blazing logs, then saw a small
scrap of something flimsy and white--it mig