rything in my power that she may be kept
ignorant of the true nature of the disease."

"Oh, how I thank you!" murmured George. "How I thank you!"

"Do not thank me; it is for her, and not for you, that I will consent to
lie."

"And my mother?"

"Your mother knows the truth."

"But--"

"I pray you, sir--we have enough to talk about, and very serious
matters."

So George went to the door and called his mother. She entered and
greeted the doctor, holding herself erect, and striving to keep the
signs of grief and terror from her face. She signed to the doctor to
take a seat, and then seated herself by a little table near him.

"Madame Dupont," he began, "I have prescribed a course of treatment for
the child. I hope to be able to improve its condition, and to prevent
any new developments. But my duty and yours does not stop there; if
there is still time, it is necessary to protect the health of the
nurse."

"Tell us what it is necessary to do, Doctor?" said she.

"The woman must stop nursing the child."

"You mean we have to change the nurse?"

"Madame, the child can no longer be brought up at the breast, either by
that nurse or by any other nurse."

"But why, sir?"

"Because the child would give her disease to the woman who gave her
milk."

"But, Doctor, if we put her on the bottle--our little one--she will
die!"

And suddenly George burst out into sobs. "Oh, my poor little daughter!
My God, my God!"

Said the doctor, "If the feeding is well attended to, with sterilized
milk--"

"That can do very well for healthy infants," broke in Madame Dupont.
"But at the age of three months one cannot take from the breast a baby
like ours, frail and ill. More than any other such an infant has need of
a nurse--is that not true?"

"Yes," the doctor admitted, "that is true. But--"

"In that case, between the life of the child, and the health of the
nurse, you understand perfectly well that my choice is made."

Between her words the doctor heard the sobbing of George, whose head was
buried in his arms. "Madame," he said, "your love for that baby has just
caused you to utter something ferocious! It is not for you to choose. It
is not for you to choose. I forbid the nursing. The health of that woman
does not belong to you."

"No," cried the grandmother, wildly, "nor does the health of out child
belong to you! If there is a hope of saving it, that hope is in giving
it more care than any other child; and you woul