said, and he watched
her face as her eyes followed the lines, with the intent yet impersonal
scrutiny of a specialist studying his case.

She looked, as she read, like a corpse that has been propped to a
sitting position, with nostrils sunken and lips of Parian marble. Her
hand shook with a violence which recalled her to herself, and when she
raised her eyes they looked as though the iris itself had faded. The
Dago Duke seemed absorbed in the curious effect.

He could hear the dryness of her mouth when she asked at last--

"You expect me--to put my name--to this?"

He inclined his head.

"It is--_impossible_!"

He replied evenly:

"It is necessary."

"You are asking me to sign my own death warrant."

He lifted his shoulders.

"It is your reputation or Essie Tisdale's."

The name seemed to prick her like a goad. Her hands and body twitched
nervously and then he saw swift decision arrive in her face.

"I'll not do it!"

As moved by a common impulse they arose.

"It's the lesser of two evils."

"I don't care!" She reiterated in a kind of hopeless desperation, "I
don't care--I'll fight!"

He eyed her again with a recurrence of his impersonal professional
scrutiny.

"You can't go through it, Doc; you haven't the stamina, any more. You
don't know what you're up against, for I haven't half showed my hand. I
have no personal grievance, as you know, but the wrongs of my
countrymen are my wrongs, and for your brutality to them you shall
answer to me. Fight if you will, but when you're done you'll not
disgrace your profession again in this or any other State."

While this scene was occurring in Doctor Harpe's office, Andy P. Symes
in his office was toying impatiently with an unopened letter from Mudge
as Mr. Percy Parrott, hat in hand, stood before him.

"It's not that I'm worried at all, Mr. Symes"--every line of Parrott's
face was deep-lined with anxiety as he spoke--"but, of course, I've made
you these loans largely upon my own responsibility, I've exceeded my
authority, in fact, and any failure on your part----" Mr. Parrott
finding himself floundering under Symes's cold gaze blurted out
desperately, "Well, 'twould break us!"

"Certainly, certainly, I know all that, but, really, these frequent
duns--this Homeseekers' Excursion has put me behind with my work, but as
soon as things are straightened out again----"

"Oh, of course. That's all right. I understand, but as soon as you
conveniently can----