e put this over your
shoulders to keep off the rain."

"Oh, no, no!" she cried, as he began to remove his coat. "You need it a
heap more than I. You have been sick, and I am well."

"Please wear it. I will walk a little to keep warm."

"Oh! I can't. I'm not cold, Doctor Thryng. It isn't that."

He became imperative through anxiety. "Then tell me what it is," he
said.

"I can't stop thinking of Decatur Irwin. I can feel you working there
yet, and seems like I never will forget. I keep going over it and over
it and can't stop. Doctor, are you sure--sure--it was right for us to do
what we did?"

"Poor child! It was terrible for you, and you were fine, you know--fine;
you are a heroine--you are--"

"I don't care for me. It isn't me. Was it right, Doctor? Was there no
other way?" she wailed.

"As far as human knowledge goes, there was no other way. Listen, Miss
Cassandra, I have been where such accidents were frequent. Many a man's
leg have I taken off. Surgery is my work in life--don't be horrified. I
chose it because I wished to be a saver of life and a helper of my
fellows." She was shivering more from the nervous reaction than from the
cold, and to David it seemed as if she were trying to draw farther away
from him.

"Don't shrink from me. There are so many in the world to kill and wound,
some there must be to mend where it is possible. I saw in a moment that
your intuition had led you rightly, and soon I knew what must be done; I
only hope we were not too late. Don't cry, Miss Cassandra. It makes me
feel such a brute to have put you through it."

"No, no. You were right kind and good. I'm only crying now because I
can't stop."

"There, there, child! We'll ride a little faster. I must get you home
and do something for you." He spoke out of the tenderness of his heart
toward her.

But soon they were again descending, and the horses, careful for their
own safety if not for their riders', continued slowly and stumblingly to
pick their footing in the darkness. Now the rain began to beat more
fiercely, and before they reached the Fall Place they were wet to the
skin.

David feared neither the wetting nor the cold for himself; only for her
in her utter weariness was he anxious. She would help him stable the
horses and led away one while he led the other, but once in the house he
took matters in his own hands peremptorily. He rebuilt the fire and
himself removed her wet garments and her shoes. She was too exha