has been of as much use
to you and Polly O'Neill as your professional nurses."

At this instant, although she had set her lips so close together that
only a pale line showed, Betty's chin quivered, and although her hands
gripped the sides of her chair so hard that her arms ached, her
shoulders shook.

If only Dr. Barton would cease his perfectly futile efforts to distract
her attention. Could any human being think of another subject or
person at a time like this?

And Dr. Barton did recognize the clumsiness of his own efforts, only
his conversation was partly intended to conceal his own anxiety.

"Don't I hear some one coming along the hall? Are you sure you locked
the door?" Betty queried uneasily.

Dr. Barton did not reply. At this instant, although the linen covering
still concealed his patient's eyes, he had removed the upper bandages,
so that now her forehead was plainly revealed to his view.

And Betty Ashton's forehead had always been singularly beautiful in the
past, low and broad with the hair growing in a soft fringe about it and
coming down into a peak in the center. Now, however, across her
forehead there showed a long crimson line, almost like the mark from
the blow of a whip. Dr. Barton examined it closely, touched it gently
with the tips of his fingers and then cleared his throat and attempted
to speak. But apparently the needed words would not come. On either
side the ugly scar the girl's skin was white and fine as delicate silk
and on top of her head, which had been protected by her heavy hair, the
burns had almost completely healed.

"It is all right, Miss Betty," Dr. Barton said in a curiously husky
voice. "You are better than I even dared hope. There is a scar now,
but I can promise you that it will be only a faint line in the future,
or else will disappear altogether. The very fact that the trouble has
concentrated into the one scar shows that the healing has taken place
all about it."

Betty's own hands slipped the final covering from about her eyes. Then
for a moment her heart seemed absolutely to have stopped beating. For
the room swam around her in a kind of disordered dimness. She could
see nothing clearly. In a panic she sprang to her feet, when Dr.
Barton took a firm hold on her shaking shoulders.

"Be quiet, child. Pull yourself together for just a minute. You are
frightened now, you know. In another moment things will clear up and
grow more distinct."

And eve