der any necessary assistance. But he saw her shudder of
apprehension as he opened the case of glittering instruments and he
hesitated dubiously. She clasped her hands in prayerful entreaty and he
turned to his work.

A few skillful strokes of the scalpel and he nodded his satisfaction.

"Merely a scalp wound with a slight depression of the parietal bone," he
said reassuringly. "It will require trephining but that is at the worst
only a minor operation. As soon as the pressure on the brain is relieved
he will recover consciousness. The bullet did not penetrate the skull at
all, being deflected by its acute angle of impact. It was an exceedingly
close call, but in six weeks he will never know he was shot at all,
provided no unforeseen complications arise."

A half hour later Douglass opened his eyes. His vision was still
uncertain and he blinked uncomprehendingly at the white faces about him.
Then he caught sight of the woman kneeling at the bedside in an agony of
thanksgiving, her face hidden in her hands. He half rose from the table
where he was lying and held out his arms pleadingly through the mists
that clouded brain and eyes alike:

"Gracie, sweetheart, forgive--!"

As he fell back fainting in the arms of the irate doctor, who was taken
unawares by his patient's unexpected action, and who was savagely
cursing his own remissness in not having strapped him to the table, the
woman rose from her knees and with one hand pressed to her heart,
tottered unsteadily towards the door. Ballard, springing to her
assistance, recoiled at the hopeless despair and misery written on that
face. At the threshold she hesitated a moment, steadying herself with
one hand braced against the casing. Then of a sudden she turned and
walked firmly to the table; disregarding the surgeon's indignant
remonstrance, she leaned over the unconscious man and laid her lips on
his. For a full minute she held them there, her form as motionless as
his, then with the slowness of one who is wearied unto death, she raised
her head and stood with closed eyes beside him.

The men's faces were averted and their heads bowed as she went silently
out. For not a one of them but was fully conversant with her relations
to Douglass, and one of them at least knew of his engagement to Grace
Carter.

But all of them were awed by the tragedy of this woman's misspent love,
all reverently silenced by the atoning sacrifice offered up in that
heart-breaking kiss of ren