not departed.

The girl was manifestly at a loss for words; this was such an
extraordinary predicament for her to find herself in that she
determined to say something at any cost.

"Dr. Carter," she faltered, "I--have changed my mind; I--I--wish you
to continue my treatment--if you will." It was not at all what she had
intended saying, and she was chagrined to feel her cheeks grow
suddenly hot; she knew that they must be rosy.

It was likely that young Dr. Carter was unused to smiling; but
suddenly his eyes were alight. He spoke, and the dry, impersonal note
was gone.

"I'm glad," he said. "We hard-working doctors can stand almost
anything--without caring a snap of our fingers, too--but when it comes
to doubting or questioning--not _our_ methods, but those that have
been tried and proven, and of which we merely avail ourselves,--why,
we can't be expected to waste much sympathy on the scoffers."

He rang the inevitable bell, and gave word to the maid: "Tell Dr.
Leonard that Miss Willis has decided to continue her treatment with
me."

Now, in the light of the foregoing experience, it was strange that
during the next week Miss Willis's throat should require considerably
more attention than it ever had under the celebrated specialist's
personal ministrations. She made five visits to Dr. Carter, but it
could not be said that he had advanced an inch toward the opening she
had made. His voice and manner were a bit more sympathetic--and that
was all.

Miss Willis seemed to find a keen delight in the fact that her
identity, for the time being, was erased by a number; during each
visit she made it a point to learn what this number was, treating the
matter in a sportive spirit, unbending her wit to ridicule a practice
which failed to discriminate among the host of patients who came to
see Dr. Leonard.

"For our purposes," Dr. Carter tolerantly explained, "a number more
conveniently identifies our patients; their differences are only
pathological. A name is easily forgotten, Miss Willis, unless there is
some unusual circumstance associated with it, to impress it upon the
mind."

She was curious to learn what unusual circumstance had caused him to
retain her name, but lacked the temerity to ask. She would have been
amazed, unbelieving, had he told her that it was her beauty; that he
was clinging rather desperately to the unlovely number, which had no
individuality and whose features were altogether neutral and
negative