said Doctor Hillhouse as the eyes of Mrs. Carlton
unclosed a little while afterward and she looked up into his face. He
was no longer the impassive surgeon, but the tender and sympathizing
friend. His voice was flooded with feeling and moisture dimmed his eyes.

What a look of sweet thankfulness came into the face of Mrs. Carlton as
she whispered, "And I knew nothing of it!" Then, shutting her eyes and
speaking to herself, she said, "It is wonderful. Thank God, thank God!"

It was almost impossible to, restrain Mr. Carlton, so excessive was his
delight when the long agony of suspense was over. Doctor Hillhouse had
to grasp his arm tightly and hold him back as he stooped down over his
wife. In the blindness of his great joy he would have lifted her in his
arms.

"Perfect quiet," said the doctor. "There must be nothing to give her
heart a quicker pulsation. Doctor Angier will remain for half an hour
to see that all goes well."

The two surgeons then retired, Doctor Kline accompanying Doctor
Hillhouse to his office. The latter was silent all the way. The strain
over and the alcoholic stimulation gone, mind and body had alike lost
their abnormal tension.

"I must congratulate you, doctor," said the friendly surgeon who had
assisted in the operation. "It was even more difficult than I had
imagined. I never saw a case in which the sheathings of the internal
jugular vein and carotid artery were so completely involved. The tumor
had made its ugly adhesion all around them. I almost held my breath
when the blood from a severed artery spurted over your scalpel and hid
from sight the keen edge that was cutting around the internal jugular.
A false movement of the hand at that instant might have been fatal."

"Yes; and but for the clearness of that inner sight which, in great
exigencies, so often supplements the failing natural vision, all might
have been lost," replied Doctor Hillhouse, betraying in his unsteady
voice the great reaction from which he was suffering. "If I had known,"
he added, "that the tumor was so large and its adhesion so extensive, I
would not have operated to-day. In fact, I was in no condition for the
performance of any operation. I committed a great indiscretion in going
to Mr. Birtwell's last night. Late suppers and wine do not leave one's
nerves in the best condition, as you and I know very well, doctor; and
as a preparation for work such as we have had on hand to-day nothing
could be worse."

"Didn