door when Dr.
Pitts's second despatch came, countermanding the first, and telling us
that the patient had died. It seems that it was one of the officers of
the Freja expedition. We didn't know--"

"Died?" interrupted Lloyd, looking fixedly at her.

"But Lloyd, you mustn't take it so to heart. You couldn't have got him
through. No one could at that time. He was probably dying when you were
sent for. We must all lose a case now and then."

"Died?" repeated Lloyd; "Dr. Pitts wired that Mr. Ferriss died?"

"Yes; it was to prevent my coming out there uselessly. He must have sent
the wire quite an hour before you left. It was very thoughtful of him."

"He's dead," said Lloyd in a low, expressionless voice, looking vacantly
about the room. "Mr. Ferriss is dead." Then suddenly she put a fist to
either temple, horror-struck and for the moment shaken with hysteria
from head to foot, her eyes widening with an expression almost of
terror. "Dead!" she cried. "Oh, it's horrible! Why didn't I--why
couldn't I--"

"I know just how you feel," answered Miss Douglass soothingly. "I am
that way myself sometimes. It's not professional, I know, but when you
have been successful in two or three bad cases you think you can always
win; and then when you lose the next case you believe that somehow it
must have been your fault--that if you had been a little more careful at
just that moment, or done a little different in that particular point,
you might have saved your patient. But you, of all people, ought not to
feel like that. If you could not have saved your case nobody could."

"It was just because I had the case that it was lost."

"Nonsense, Lloyd; don't talk like that. You've not had enough sleep;
your nerves have been over-strained. You're worn out and a little
hysterical and morbid. Now lie down and keep quiet, and I'll bring you
your supper. You need a good night's sleep and bromide of potassium."

When she had gone Lloyd rose to her feet and drew her hand wearily
across her eyes. The situation adjusted itself in her mind. After the
first recoil of horror at Ferriss's death she was able to see the false
position in which she stood. She had been so certain already that
Ferriss would die, leaving him as she did at so critical a moment, that
now the sharpness of Miss Douglass's news was blunted a little. She had
only been unprepared for the suddenness of the shock. But now she
understood clearly how Miss Douglass had been deceived