stethoscope upon Madison's breast. "Get his
room ready for him." She gave him a piteous look, struck with
fear; then obeyed a gesture and ran flutteringly up the stairs.

"I'm all right now," panted Madison, drinking the water Hedrick
brought him.

"You're not so darned all right," said Sloane coolly, as he
pocketed his stethoscope. "Come, let me help you up. We're going
to get you to bed."

There was an effort at protest, but the physician had his way, and
the two ascended the stairs slowly, Sloane's arm round his new
patient. At Cora's door, the latter paused.

"What's the matter?"

"I want," said Madison thickly--"I want--to speak to Cora."

"We'll pass that up just now," returned the other brusquely, and
led him on. Madison was almost helpless: he murmured in a husky,
uncertain voice, and suffered himself to be put to bed. There, the
doctor "worked" with him; cold "applications" were ordered; Laura
was summoned from the other sick-bed; Hedrick sent flying with
prescriptions, then to telephone for a nurse. The two women
attempted questions at intervals, but Sloane replied with orders,
and kept them busy.

"Do you--think I'm a---a pretty sick man, Sloane?" asked Madison
after a long silence, speaking with difficulty.

"Oh, you're sick, all right," the doctor conceded.

"I--I want to speak to Jennie."

His wife rushed to the bed, and knelt beside it.

"Don't you go to confessing your sins," said Doctor Sloane
crossly. "You're coming out of the woods all right, and you'll be
sorry if you tell her too, much. I'll begin a little flirtation
with you, Miss Laura, if you please." And he motioned to her to
follow him into the hall.

"Your father _is_ pretty sick," he told her, "and he may be sicker
before we get him into shape again. But you needn't be worried
right now; I think he's not in immediate danger." He turned at the
sound of Mrs. Madison's step, behind him, and repeated to her what
he had just said to Laura. "I hope your husband didn't give
himself away enough to be punished when we get him on his feet
again," he concluded cheerfully.

She shook her head, tried to smile through tears, and, crossing
the hall, entered Cora's room. She came back after a moment, and,
rejoining the other two at her husband's bedside, found the sick
man in a stertorous sleep. Presently the nurse arrived, and upon
the physician's pointed intimation that there were "too many
people around," Laura went to Cora's room. She