eeding medical care, Doctor Haselden could learn
nothing at all until he had prevailed upon Mr. Wedmore to let him see
Dudley instead of listening to abuse of him.

Doctor Haselden was a long time in the sick-room, and when he came out
he looked grave. Mr. Wedmore, who met him outside the door, was annoyed.

"It's nothing, I suppose, that a few days' quiet won't set right?" he
asked quickly.

"I don't know, I'm sure," answered the doctor. "It's more serious than I
thought by what you said--a great deal more serious. I don't know, I'm
sure, whether we shall get him round at all."

A little cry startled both men and made them look round. In a recess of
the corridor above they could distinguish the figure of a woman, and Mr.
Wedmore's heart smote him, for it was Doreen.

"Go away, child! Go away!" said he, half petulantly, but yet with some
remorse in his tone. "The girl's crazy about him," he added, with
irritation, when his daughter had silently obeyed.

"Poor child! Poor child!" said Doctor Haselden, sympathetically. "She's
the real old-fashioned sort, with a warm heart under all her little
airs. I hope he'll get round, if only for her sake. But--"

"She couldn't marry him in any case," said Mr. Wedmore, shortly. "I
thought I told you that affair was broken off--definitely broken
off--weeks ago. And now--"

He stopped and intimated by a gesture of the hand that the break was
more definite than ever.

The doctor was curious, but he tried not to show it.

"I should wire up to town for another nurse, I think," said he. "This
little girl can't do it all."

Mr. Wedmore pricked up his ears.

"Then I must wire for two--for two nurses," said he, decidedly. "We're
going to send this girl off. She's not a nurse at all."

"Ah, but she does very well," objected the doctor, promptly, "and you
will be doing very unwisely if you send her away. It seems she
understands all the circumstances of the case, and that counts for
something in treating a patient who has evidently something on his mind.
She seems to be able to soothe him, and in a case of concussion--"

"But she's trying to get hold of my fool of a son Max!" protested Mr.
Wedmore.

"But it isn't a question of your son Max, but of young Horne," said
Doctor Haselden, with decision. "As for Max, he can take care of
himself; and, at any rate, he's got all his family about to take care of
him. You keep the girl. She's got a head on her shoulders. Most uncommon
thi