"Ten minutes?"

"Yes, or maybe a little longer."

"She will feel no pain?"

"None."

"Nor be conscious of what you are doing?"

"She will be as much in oblivion as a sleeping infant," replied the
doctor.

Mr. Carlton turned from Dr. Hillhouse and walked the whole length of
the parlor twice, then stood still, and said, with painful
impressiveness:

"Doctor, I place her in your hands. She is ready for anything we may
decide upon as best."

He stopped and turned partly away to hide his feelings. But recovering
himself, and forcing a smile to his lips, he said:

"To your professional eyes I show unmanly weakness. But you must bear
in mind how very dear she is to me. It makes me shiver in every nerve
to think of the knife going down into her tender flesh. You might cut
me to pieces, doctor, if that would save her."

"Your fears exaggerate everything," returned Doctor Hillhouse, in an
assuring voice. "She will go into a tranquil sleep, and while dreaming
pleasant dreams we will quickly dissect out the tumor, and leave the
freed organs to continue their healthy action under the old laws of
unobstructed life."

"When ought it to be done?" asked Mr. Carlton the tremor coming back
into his voice.

"The sooner, the better, after an operation is decided upon," answered
the doctor. "I will make another examination in about two weeks. The
changes that take place in that time will help me to a clearer decision
than it is possible to arrive at now."

After a lapse of two weeks Doctor Hillhouse, in company with another
surgeon, made a second examination. What his conclusions were will
appear in the following conversation held with Dr. Angier.

"The tumor is not of a malignant character," Doctor Hillhouse replied,
in answer to his assistant's inquiry. "But it is larger than I at first
suspected and is growing very rapidly. From a slight suffusion of Mrs.
Carlton's face which I did not observe at any previous visit, it is
evident that the tumor is beginning to press upon the carotids. Serious
displacements of blood-vessels, nerves, glands and muscles must soon
occur if this growth goes on."

"Then her life is in danger?" said Dr. Angier.

"It is assuredly, and nothing but a successful operation can save her."

"What does Doctor Kline think of the case?"

"He agrees with me as to the character of the tumor, but thinks it
larger than an orange, deeply cast among the great blood-vessels, and
probably so attached to t