y, led her often to
anticipate the physician's wish, and act upon it. More than once she won
a look of surprise from the older woman.

Donald's directions to Miss Merriman were curt and incisive; but soon he
did not limit his speech to them. Rather he seemed to be uttering his
thoughts aloud; the old habit of making a running explanation for the
benefit of a clinic or the better understanding of an assistant was
subconsciously asserting itself, and it was to Rose as though she were
listening to the outpouring of a fountain of knowledge, whose waters
engulfed her mind and made it gasp, yet carried her along with them. It
was all a dream, a weird, impossible nightmare to her; the familiar room
began to assume a strange aspect, and the man's words came to her as do
those heard in a sleeping vision--real, yet tinctured with unreality.

"In this case the elastic tourniquet will stop the blood flow as
effectively as the Heidenhain backstitch suture method, I think, Miss
Merriman, and it will be much simpler. I'm glad I brought it. Have you
the saline solution, and the gauze head-covering ready?"

"Yes, doctor."

"Then you may administer the ether--use the drop method, and don't
forget to show her just how to regulate it.

"No blood-pressure machine," he muttered. "Oh, well, we've just got to
trust to her being able to stand it, and ..."

"And to God," whispered Rose.

He glanced quickly up, as though he had already forgotten her presence,
and added, gently, "Of course."

The small pad of gauze, which Miss Merriman laid over the baby's face,
grew moist; a strange, pungent odor began to fill the room. As she bent
over to watch intently what the nurse was doing, Rose suddenly found
herself beginning to get dizzy.

"Stand up, Smiles," came the sharp command. "Here, hold this
handkerchief over your mouth and nose. Now, take the bottle yourself ...
so ... a drop on the pad ... now. Yes, that's right, just as Miss
Merriman has been doing. Little Lou is wholly unconscious, we must keep
her so.

"Remember, now your test is beginning, and I expect you not to fail me.
A great deal depends on you, Rose. You are a soldier on the firing-line
now, and you are going to keep up, whatever happens. It may be for half
an hour, but you will keep up, for me, for Lou, whatever happens.
Remember! _Whatever happens!_"

He looked fixedly into the unnaturally big eyes which were turned up to
his like two glorious flowers, and she nodded.