t professional
manner.

"What are you doing here?" he asked sternly.

"I think," she replied, trying to master her excitement, "that Lord
Radclyffe has fainted. I did not know what to do."

"I should think not indeed," he said; "and why did you not ring for
the nurse? and why are you here?"

"I wished to see Lord Radclyffe myself," she replied.

"Without my permission?"

"You would have refused it."

"Certainly I should. And I must request you to leave the sick room at
once."

Baffled and miserable, she stood for a moment hesitating, vaguely
wondering if she could rebel. Indeed, she had no option but to obey.
The doctor was well within his rights: she, utterly in the wrong.

She turned toward the door ready to go, but in order to reach it from
where she stood, she had to go past the foot of the bed.

The nurse was busy administering restoratives, and Doctor Newington
had taken up the attitude dear to every Englishman: his stand upon the
hearth rug, and his hands buried in the pockets of his trousers. He
was treating Louisa like a disobedient child, and she had no one to
appeal to in this moment of complete helplessness.

One moment only did she debate with herself. The nurse just then had
gone to a side table to fetch some brandy. The patient, so Louisa
heard her tell the doctor, had not actually fainted; he was merely in
a state of exhaustion.

Swift and furtive, like some small animal in danger of its life,
Louisa slipped in between the screen and the bed, and before the
doctor or nurse could prevent her, she had bent right over the sick
man and whispered close to his ear:

"Lord Radclyffe, unless you make an effort now, to-morrow Luke will be
standing in the dock--branded as a felon. Make an effort for Luke's
sake!"

And the spirit which had gone wandering in the land of shadows came
back to earth at sound of that one name.

"Luke!" he whispered, "Luke, my boy. I am strong. I can help you."

"Miss Harris----" interposed the doctor sternly.

But the sick man's words had put new strength into her. She was ready
to fight the doctor now. The conventional woman of the world was
transformed into just a mere woman fighting for the thing she
loved--child, lover, or husband, it is all the same when that womanly
instinct of combat is aroused.

Doctor Newington would have had to take Louisa Harris by the shoulders
now if he meant to eject her: for until the patient spoke, here she
meant to remain.

"D