w with emotion, for it
was terrible to her to have to talk of this thing which had thrown such
a shadow over their lives.

"How did she know?" demanded Rupert hotly, thinking how hateful it was
that a servant should know more about their private skeleton than they
knew themselves.

"Aunt Judith told her," replied Nealie; and then she burst out hotly:
"But indeed there is nothing to look so shocked about in the affair,
Rupert. If Father did make a mistake, it was not so serious as it might
have been; and I think that it was altogether wrong to hush it up as it
has been. There are some things which are all the better for being told,
and I am quite sure that this is one of them."

"What do you mean?" he asked hoarsely. "I should think that a mistake of
that kind should be buried as deep as possible, for who would be likely
to trust a doctor who might make blunders that might cost a man his
life?"

"It was not a life-or-death blunder in that sense, but only one of
maiming," said Nealie hastily. "Father wanted to take off a man's arm to
save his life; but the family, and I suppose the man himself, would not
hear of it, for the man was heir to someone's property, an awful pile it
was; and the someone--she was a woman--said that her money should never
go to a man who was maimed. So of course the man's family would not hear
of it, and they would not have another doctor called in either; and
things went on, the poor man getting worse and worse, until one day
Father declared that he would throw up the case, because he would not be
responsible for the man's life. Then the man said that it could be taken
off if Father liked, only it must be done without his people knowing
anything about it, which was easy enough, seeing that he was being
nursed at his lodgings. Father sent for another doctor to come and
administer the chloroform, and he performed the operation himself, as
the man was too bad to be moved eight miles to the nearest hospital.
There was a frightful week after that, when Father simply gave up
everything to pull the poor fellow through. He did it too, and the
relatives did not know until he was out of danger that the arm had been
amputated."

"Whew, what a story!" said Rupert, mopping his forehead, on which the
perspiration stood in great beads. "I think that Father was a hero,
because he acted up to his principle--the true doctor principle--of
saving life at no matter what cost to himself. But I don't mind
admitt