lready weak, he was taken himself with symptoms of aneurism
in a curious form, essentially similar to these; so that he died before
the trial--a lucky escape for him."

He paused rhetorically once more; then he added in the same tone:
"Mental agitation and the terror of detection no doubt accelerated the
fatal result in that instance. He died at once from the shock of
the arrest. It was a natural conclusion. Here we may hope for a more
successful issue."

He spoke to the students, of course, but I could see for all that that
he was keeping his falcon eye fixed hard on Hilda's face. I glanced
aside at her. She never flinched for a second. Neither said anything
directly to the other; still, by their eyes and mouths, I knew some
strange passage of arms had taken place between them. Sebastian's tone
was one of provocation, of defiance, I might almost say of challenge.
Hilda's air I took rather for the air of calm and resolute, but assured,
resistance. He expected her to answer; she said nothing. Instead of
that, she went on holding the basin now with fingers that WOULD not
tremble. Every muscle was strained. Every tendon was strung. I could see
she held herself in with a will of iron.

The rest of the episode passed off quietly. Sebastian, having delivered
his bolt, began to think less of Hilda and more of the patient. He
went on with his demonstration. As for Hilda, she gradually relaxed her
muscles, and, with a deep-drawn breath, resumed her natural attitude.
The tension was over. They had had their little skirmish, whatever it
might mean, and had it out; now, they called a truce over the patient's
body.

When the case had been disposed of, and the students dismissed, I went
straight into the laboratory to get a few surgical instruments I had
chanced to leave there. For a minute or two, I mislaid my clinical
thermometer, and began hunting for it behind a wooden partition in the
corner of the room by the place for washing test-tubes. As I stooped
down, turning over the various objects about the tap in my search,
Sebastian's voice came to me. He had paused outside the door, and
was speaking in his calm, clear tone, very low, to Hilda. "So NOW we
understand one another, Nurse Wade," he said, with a significant sneer.
"I know whom I have to deal with!"

"And _I_ know, too," Hilda answered, in a voice of placid confidence.

"Yet you are not afraid?"

"It is not _I_ who have cause for fear. The accused may tremble, not