man?"

He shrank back as though struck. One hand went tremulously to his chin
and he stared at her.

"No! No!" he burst out spasmodically. "It's not so! I shall not admit
it! Would you have me ruin myself for all time? Would you have me ruin
Elsie's future! Would you have me kill her love for me?"

"Then you will not confess?"

"I tell you there is nothing to confess!"

She gazed at him steadily a moment. Then she turned back to the door,
softly unlocked and opened it. He started to rush through, but she
raised a hand and stopped him.

"Just look," she commanded in a whisper.

He stared through the open door. They could see Elsie's white face
upon the pillow, with the two dark braids beside it; and could see
Doctor West hovering over her. He had not heard them, but Miss Sherman
had, and she directed at Katherine a pale and hostile glance.

The young husband twisted his hands in agony.

"Oh, Elsie! Elsie!" he moaned.

Katherine closed the door, and turned again to Doctor Sherman.

"You have seen your work," she said. "Do you still persist in your
innocence?"

He drew a deep, shivering breath and shrank away behind his desk, but
did not answer.

Katherine followed him.

"Do you know how sick your wife is?"

"I heard your father say."

"She is swinging over eternity by a mere thread." Katherine leaned
across the desk and her eyes gazed with an even greater fixity into
his. "If the thread snaps, do you know who will have broken it?"

"Don't! Don't!" he begged.

"Her own husband," Katherine went on relentlessly.

A cry of agony escaped him.

"You saw that old man in there bending over her," she pursued,
"trying with all his skill, with all his love, to save her--to save
her from the peril you have plunged her into--and with never a bitter
feeling against you in his heart. If she lives, it will be because of
him. And yet that old man is ruined and has a blackened reputation. I
ask you, do you know who ruined him?"

"Don't! Don't!" he cried, and he sank a crumpled figure at his desk,
and buried his face in his arms.

"Look up!" cried Katherine sternly.

"Wait!" he moaned. "Wait!"

She passed around the desk and firmly raised his shoulders.

"Look me in the eyes!"

He lifted a face that worked convulsively.

She stood accusingly before him. "Out with the truth!" she commanded
in a rising voice. "In the presence of your wife, perhaps dying, and
dying as the result of your act--in the presence