patient man
with turbulent black hair and a hussar mustache--Dr. A. I. Dilling,
the surgeon. Babbitt sputtered with anxiety, tried to conceal it, and
hurried down to the door.

Dr. Patten was profusely casual: "Don't want to worry you, old man, but
I thought it might be a good stunt to have Dr. Dilling examine her." He
gestured toward Dilling as toward a master.

Dilling nodded in his curtest manner and strode up-stairs Babbitt
tramped the living-room in agony. Except for his wife's confinements
there had never been a major operation in the family, and to him surgery
was at once a miracle and an abomination of fear. But when Dilling and
Patten came down again he knew that everything was all right, and he
wanted to laugh, for the two doctors were exactly like the bearded
physicians in a musical comedy, both of them rubbing their hands and
looking foolishly sagacious.

Dr. Dilling spoke:

"I'm sorry, old man, but it's acute appendicitis. We ought to operate.
Of course you must decide, but there's no question as to what has to be
done."

Babbitt did not get all the force of it. He mumbled, "Well I suppose we
could get her ready in a couple o' days. Probably Ted ought to come down
from the university, just in case anything happened."

Dr. Dilling growled, "Nope. If you don't want peritonitis to set in,
we'll have to operate right away. I must advise it strongly. If you say
go ahead, I'll 'phone for the St. Mary's ambulance at once, and we'll
have her on the table in three-quarters of an hour."

"I--I Of course, I suppose you know what--But great God, man, I can't
get her clothes ready and everything in two seconds, you know! And in
her state, so wrought-up and weak--"

"Just throw her hair-brush and comb and tooth-brush in a bag; that's
all she'll need for a day or two," said Dr. Dilling, and went to the
telephone.

Babbitt galloped desperately up-stairs. He sent the frightened Tinka out
of the room. He said gaily to his wife, "Well, old thing, the doc thinks
maybe we better have a little operation and get it over. Just take a few
minutes--not half as serious as a confinement--and you'll be all right
in a jiffy."

She gripped his hand till the fingers ached. She said patiently, like a
cowed child, "I'm afraid--to go into the dark, all alone!" Maturity was
wiped from her eyes; they were pleading and terrified. "Will you stay
with me? Darling, you don't have to go to the office now, do you? Could
you just go dow