railroad, the way I do, you see
some queerer accidents than that. Now, I remember--"

But Mrs. Tarbell found this conversation growing quite too ghastly to be
listened to with composure, so she turned abruptly toward the sofa. The
doctor was now bathing and examining Mrs. Stiles's ankle, and Mrs.
Stiles looked not merely the picture but the dramatic materialization of
misery.

"How do you feel now, Mrs. Stiles? How do you think she is, doctor?"
These two questions were put in Mrs. Tarbell's sweetest tones.

Mrs. Stiles lay for a moment without answering, but the doctor replied
that he was afraid it was a nasty business. "There is a dislocation, and
there may be nothing more, except a sprain," he said. "But it will be
impossible to tell until the swelling is reduced; and if there is a
fracture of the fibula, why, such a complication is apt to be serious."

Mrs. Stiles groaned feebly, and then looked up at Mrs. Tarbell with
gratitude. "I never thought to be so much trouble to you," she murmured.

"Do not think of that for a moment," said Mrs. Tarbell. "If I only had
my cologne-bottle," she said, half aloud, in an apologetic voice. This
was one of the luxuries she had refused herself in her professional
toilet; more than this, she did not allow herself to carry a
smelling-bottle, though Mr. Juddson had told her it could be used with
great effect to disconcert an opposing counsel.

"I am afraid you are suffering very much," she went on.

"Yes, ma'am," said Mrs. Stiles sadly. "If I hadn't only been such a fool
as to try to get on that there car while it was a-going."

Mrs. Tarbell started. The doctor rose and laughed.

"You don't mean that," said he.

"Mean what, doctor?"

"That you tried to get on while the car was going. All these gentlemen
here say the car started while you were trying to get on, which is a
very different thing, you know." The doctor had evidently kept his ears
open while attending to the sufferer. Mrs. Tarbell, rather red in the
face, kept silent, not knowing exactly what she ought to do.

"I don't know," said Mrs. Stiles feebly. "I don't s'pose I remember
much."

"Of course you don't," said the doctor cheerfully. "Bless you, you'll
sue the company and have a famous verdict; I wouldn't take ten thousand
dollars for your chances if I had them. You observe," he went on
confidentially to Mrs. Tarbell, "I am doing my best for the community of
interests which, ought to exist among the learned p