d the little old dressmaker at her side,
stroking her hot, dry palm.

The facts of the matter were that the German woman who lived below
had been awakened some hours after midnight by the sounds of Trina's
weeping. She had come upstairs and into the room to find Trina stretched
face downward upon the floor, half-conscious and sobbing, in the throes
of an hysteria for which there was no relief. The woman, terrified, had
called her husband, and between them they had got Trina upon the bed.
Then the German woman happened to remember that Trina had friends in
the big flat near by, and had sent her husband to fetch the retired
dressmaker, while she herself remained behind to undress Trina and put
her to bed. Miss Baker had come over at once, and began to cry herself
at the sight of the dentist's poor little wife. She did not stop to ask
what the trouble was, and indeed it would have been useless to attempt
to get any coherent explanation from Trina at that time. Miss Baker
had sent the German woman's husband to get some ice at one of the
"all-night" restaurants of the street; had kept cold, wet towels on
Trina's head; had combed and recombed her wonderful thick hair; and had
sat down by the side of the bed, holding her hot hand, with its poor
maimed fingers, waiting patiently until Trina should be able to speak.

Towards morning Trina awoke--or perhaps it was a mere regaining of
consciousness--looked a moment at Miss Baker, then about the room until
her eyes fell upon her trunk with its broken lock. Then she turned over
upon the pillow and began to sob again. She refused to answer any of
the little dressmaker's questions, shaking her head violently, her face
hidden in the pillow.

By breakfast time her fever had increased to such a point that Miss
Baker took matters into her own hands and had the German woman call
a doctor. He arrived some twenty minutes later. He was a big, kindly
fellow who lived over the drug store on the corner. He had a deep voice
and a tremendous striding gait less suggestive of a physician than of a
sergeant of a cavalry troop.

By the time of his arrival little Miss Baker had divined intuitively
the entire trouble. She heard the doctor's swinging tramp in the entry
below, and heard the German woman saying:

"Righd oop der stairs, at der back of der halle. Der room mit der door
oppen."

Miss Baker met the doctor at the landing, she told him in a whisper of
the trouble.

"Her husband's deserte