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loads, often renewed.

A lady was ushered into Saxham's consulting-room as a long procession of
those carts went creaking by. She was a dainty, piquante, golden-haired,
blue-eyed little woman, quite beautifully dressed. Her gown was of black,
in deference to the national mourning, but it glittered with sequins, and
huge diamonds scintillated in her tiny ears, and she wore a mantle of
royal ermine, that reached to the high heels of her little shoes. Her hat
was of the toque description. Ermine and lace and artificial blooms from
Parisian shop-window-gardens went to make up the delicious effect. A
titled name adorned her card, which bore a Mayfair address. She seemed in
radiant health. As Saxham waited, leaning forward in his consulting-chair,
to receive the would-be patient's confidence, you can imagine those blue
eyes of his, once so hard and keen, looking out of their hollowing caves
with a sorrowful, clear sympathy that was very different from their old
regard. To his women-patients he was exquisitely considerate. Only to one
class of patient was he merciless and unsparing.

Upon the woman who desired to rid herself of her sex-privilege, upon the
wedded wanton who sought to make of her body, designed by her Maker to be
the cradle of an unborn generation, its sepulchre, Saxham's glance fell
like a sharp curved sword. He wasted few words upon her, but each
sentence, as it fell from his grim mouth, shrivelled and corroded, as
vitriol dropped on naked human flesh. He listened now in silence that grew
grimmer and grimmer, and as in flute-like accents, their smooth course
hampered by the very slightest diffidence, the little lady explained,
those heavy brows of his grew thunderous.

Ah, the tragic errand, the snaky purpose, coiled behind those graceful,
ambiguous forms of speech! Not new the tale to the man who sat and heard.
She admired the black-haired, powerful head, and the square, pale face
with its short, aquiline, rather heavily-modelled features, and the broad,
white forehead that the single smudge of eyebrow barred pleased her, as it
did most women. Only the man's vivid blue eyes were unpleasantly hard and
fixed in their regard, and his mouth frightened her, it was so stern and
set.

She was not as robust as she appeared, she said. When she had been
married, the family physician had mentioned to her mother that it would
hardly be advisable.... Delay for a year or two would be wise. And her
husband did not car