his hand which threw his somewhat grim features
into strong relief. He made a weird figure in his night-attire, and his
red hair looked as if it had been brushed straight on end.

He looked at neither Olga nor Nick, merely for a single instant at the
shivering, sobbing girl on the floor, ere he set down his lamp with
decision and turned to the washing-stand.

Olga stood and watched him as one fascinated. He was quite deliberate in
all he did. With the utmost calmness he took up a tumbler and poured out
some cold water.

Then very quietly he went to Violet, bent over her, gathered the dark
hair back upon her shoulders.

She started at his touch, started and cried out in wild alarm, raising
her head. And Max, with a set intention which seemed to Olga scarcely
short of brutal, dashed a spray of water full into her deathly face.

She flinched away from him with another cry, gasping for breath and
staring up at him as one in nightmare terror.

"You!" she uttered voicelessly. "You!"

He held what was left of the water to her lips. "Drink!" he said with
insistence.

She tried feebly to resist. Her teeth chattered against the glass.

"Drink!" Max said again relentlessly.

Olga stooped swiftly forward and slipped a supporting arm around her.
Violet drank a little, and turned to her, weakly sobbing.

"Allegro, send him away! Send him away!"

"Yes, dear, yes; he's going now," murmured Olga soothingly.

Max gave the glass to Nick with the absolute detachment of the
professional man, and proceeded to take Violet's pulse. He watched her
closely as he did so, with shaggy brows drawn down.

Violet gazed at him wide-eyed. She was no longer sobbing, but she
shivered from head to foot.

"Yes," said Max at last, in the tone of one continuing an interrupted
conversation. "Well, now you are going back to bed."

Violet shrank against Olga. "Let me stay with you, Allegro!" she
murmured piteously.

"Of course you shall, dear," Olga made quick reply.

But in the same instant she saw Max elevate one eyebrow and knew that
this suggestion did not meet with his approval.

"You will sleep better in your own room," he said. "Come along! Let me
help you."

He put his arm about her and lifted her to her feet; but she clung fast
to Olga still.

"I won't go without you, Allegro," she cried hysterically.

"My dear, of course not!" Olga answered. She caught up her dressing-gown
and wrapped it round her friend. "You're as cold as