er loud breathing told Nell Beecroft that she was in the heavy
sleep of drink. The nurse opened the door and stood by the bedside
looking down upon her as she lay dressed as she had come from the dance,
on the outside of the counterpane. One bare arm was thrown over her
head, the other was hanging limply over the edge of the bed, her loose
hair was a snarled mass upon the pillow and her open mouth gave her face
an empty, sodden look that was bestial.

"I wonder what your swell friends would say to you now?" the woman
muttered, staring at her through narrowed lids. "Those private patients
that you're always bragging swear by you? What would they say if I
should tell 'em that just bein' plain drunk like any common prostitute
was the least of----" she checked herself and glanced into the hallway.
"What would they think if they knew you as I know you--what would they
say if I told them only half?" Her mouth dropped in a contemptuous
smile. "They wouldn't believe me--they'd say I lied about their 'lady
doc.'"

She went on in sneering self-condemnation--

"I'm nothin'--just nothin'; drug up among the worst; no learnin'--no
raisin'--but _her_--HER!" Nell Beecroft's lips curled in indescribable
scorn. "She's _worse_ than nothin', for she's had her chanst!"

There was no color in the East, only a growing light which made Dr.
Harpe look ashen and haggard when she crawled from the bed and looked at
herself in a square of glass on the wall.

"You sure don't look like a spring chicken in the cold, gray dawn,
Harpe," she said aloud as she made a wry face and ran out her tongue.
"Bilious! A dose of nux vomica for you. That mixed stuff does knock a
fellow's stomach out and no mistake. Moses! I look fierce."

Her head ached dully, her mouth and throat felt parched, and yet withal
she had a feeling of contentment the reason for which did not
immediately penetrate her dull consciousness. She realized only that
some agreeable happening had left her with a sensation of warmth about
her heart.

As she fumbled on the floor for hair-pins, yawning sleepily until her
jaws cracked, she wondered what it was. She stopped in the midst of
twisting her loose hair and her face lighted in sudden recollection.
Ogden Van Lennop! Ah, that was it. She remembered now. She had broken
down his prejudice; she had partially won him over; she had been the
"hit" of the evening; further conquests were in sight and within easy
reach if she played her cards r