ident it seemed.

"Send him up, of course, Ramsdell. Doctor Keltridge is too busy a man
to be kept waiting," he said briefly.

To his extreme surprise, Katharine took the hint and rose.

"And I must go, Mr. Opdyke. It has been such a pleasant time for me,
this little talk with you. Some day, perhaps you will let me come
again. Meanwhile, you really will be thinking over some of the things
I've said?"

"Very likely," Reed answered rather shortly, as once more the hoptoad
of a hand rested unpleasantly close to his shoulder. "It's not a thing
one is likely to forget."

"I am so glad. How do you do, Doctor Keltridge?" she added archly. "You
find me here, invading your province. I do hope you won't be too
angry." And, with a nod to Reed, she rustled from the room.

It was plain, however, that the doctor was angry, very, very angry.
With a gesture of complete disgust, he thrust aside the chair in which
she had been sitting, drew up another and, seating himself, rested his
long fingers on Opdyke's wrist, while his keen eyes searched the face,
more flushed now than he had ever seen it, the veins about the temples
filled to bursting and pounding madly, the wavy hair above them
clinging tightly to the brow. As long as the rustling skirts were
audible, the doctor sat there, silent, his face blackening more with
every second. When at last the front-door screen had clicked behind
her, he spoke.

"Boy, I'd have given a thousand dollars to have prevented this. That
damned woman has been enough to put you back a dozen months. Yes, yes.
I know she is a fool; but I also know that your nerves aren't in any
state to stand her infernal diatribes. Been telling you it rested with
you alone to choose the psychological moment for going out to walk,
with your bed strapped on your back? Yes; I know, I tell you. No use
for you to deny. No sense, either, for that matter. You owe the woman
nothing; and, by thunder," he let go the wrist and gently laid his hand
on Opdyke's throbbing head; "she is going to owe you a good deal. If
she had kept on much longer, you'd have been a case for a hypodermic,
perhaps worse. How the devil did she get up here, Ramsdell?"

Ramsdell, from the foot of the couch, was watching Opdyke with the
dumb, anxious entreaty of a faithful dog.

"Really, I couldn't 'elp it, sir. Mr. Hopdyke 'ad sent me of an errand.
When I got back, why, 'ere she was, a-going it as bad as any
suffragette." Ramsdell checked himself abru