I don't _want_ to do it, so
don't be a fool!"

Symes groaned; she had attacked him in his most vulnerable spot, namely,
his horror of scandal, of anything which would besmirch the name of
which he was so inordinately proud. This pride was at once his strength
and his weakness.

"And if I permit myself to be blackmailed--there is no use in mincing
words--if I give you this contract in exchange for my wife's good name
are you willing to consider every obligation wiped out?"

Her eyes flashed their triumph at this quick collapse of his stand.

"I am."

"And, furthermore, will you agree to discontinue your visits to my
house?"

"Why?" There was hard bravado in the question.

"Your influence is not good, Dr. Harpe."

"What does Augusta say?"

"I've not consulted her."

"And the contract is mine?--that is settled?"

"So long as you keep your word."

She smiled enigmatically.

"I'll keep my word."

A fumbling at the door ended the interview, for it opened to admit a
white-faced woman with a child moaning in her arms.

"Oh, Doctor, I'm so glad you're here!" she cried in relief. "He's been
like this since early this morning and I brought him in town as quick as
I could. Is it anything serious?"

"Come here, my little man."

Symes saw the reddening of the ranchwoman's eyelids at the sympathy in
the Doctor's voice, at the gentleness with which she took the child from
her arms. Symes paused in the doorway to look longer at the swift
transition which made her the woman that her patients knew. There was a
softly maternal look in her face as she hung brooding over the child, a
look so genuine that it bewildered him in the light of what had just
transpired. Was this another phase of the woman's character or was it
assumed for his benefit?

The child's shawl slipped to the floor and, as the mother stooped for
it, Dr. Harpe flashed him a mocking glance which left him in no doubt.

XV

SYMES'S AUTHORITY

Symes descended the stairs of the Terriberry House in a frame of mind
that was very different from the determined arrogance with which he had
ascended them less than an hour before. He was filled with a humiliating
sense of defeat, and of having acted weakly. He returned mechanically
the salutations of those he passed upon the street and sunk into his
office chair with his hat upon his head, a dazed sense of shock and
humiliation still upon him.

He had been blind as a bat, he told himself, blinder