la than a victim of 'phobia. It turned normal men and
women into pitiful children, afraid of the dark, groping out for the hand
to reassure them, to put heart and courage back in them again--the hand
that nine cases out of ten never reaches them in time.

With an impulsive toss of her head, Sheila O'Leary swung about in her
tracks. She would break her own bargain for this once. She would go to
Miss Max and ask to be put on the case. Here was a soul sick unto death
with a fear of something, and Saunders was nursing it! What did it matter
if it was a man or a dog, as long as she could get into the dark after him
and show him the way out! Her resolve held to the point of branching
paths, and there she stopped to consider again.

Peter's eyes were on the swans; there was nothing to the general droop of
the shoulders, the thrust-forward bend of the neck, the hollowing of the
smooth-shaven cheeks, and the graying of the hair above the temples to
write him other than an average overworked or habitually harassed business
man here for rest and treatment. If Sheila was mistaken--if there was no
abnormal mental condition back of it all, no legitimate reason for not
holding fast to the compact she had made three years before with herself
to leave men--young, old, or middle-aged--out of her profession, what a
fool she would feel! She balanced the paths and her judgment for a second,
then decided in favor of the bargain. So Peter was left to the
ministrations of Saunders.

That night the unexpected happened, unexpected as far as the sanitarium,
the superintendent of nurses, and Sheila O'Leary were concerned. How
unexpected it was to Peter depends largely on whether it was the result of
a decision on his part to stop coaxing existence--or a desire to escape
permanently from Saunders--or merely an accident. However, Sheila O'Leary
was called in the middle of the night, when she was sleeping so soundly
that it took the combined efforts of the superintendent and the head night
nurse to shake her awake. As she hurried into her uniform they gave her
the bare details. Somehow the doors of the sun-parlor had not been
fastened as usual, and a patient had stayed up there after lights were
out. He had tried to find his way to the lift, had slipped the fastenings
of the door in his effort to locate the bell, and had fallen four stories,
to the top of the lift itself. The whole accident was unbelievable,
unprecedented. They might find some plaus