humiliation cut so deeply
and cruelly now. Ferriss had lied about her, and Bennett had believed
the lie. To meet Bennett again under such circumstances was not to be
thought of for one moment. Her vacation was spoiled; the charm of the
country had vanished. Lloyd returned to the City the next day.

She found that she was glad to get back to her work. The subdued murmur
of the City that hourly assaulted her windows was a relief to her ears
after the profound and numbing silence of the country. The square was
never so beautiful as at this time of summer, and even the restless
shadow pictures, that after dark were thrown upon the ceiling of her
room by the electrics shining through the great elms in the square
below, were a pleasure.

On the morning after her arrival and as she was unpacking her trunk Miss
Douglass came into her room and seated herself, according to her custom,
on the couch. After some half-hour's give-and-take talk, the fever nurse
said:

"Do you remember, Lloyd, what I told you about typhoid in the
spring--that it was almost epidemic?"

Lloyd nodded, turning about from her trunk, her arms full of dresses.

"It's worse than ever now," continued Miss Douglass; "three of our
people have been on cases only in the short time you have been away. And
there's a case out in Medford that has killed one nurse."

"Well!" exclaimed Lloyd in some astonishment, "it seems to me that one
should confine typhoid easily enough."

"Not always, not always," answered the other; "a virulent case would be
quite as bad as yellow fever or smallpox. You remember when we were at
the hospital Miss Helmuth, that little Polish nurse, contracted it from
her case and died even before her patient did. Then there was Eva
Blayne. She very nearly died. I did like the way Miss Wakeley took this
case out at Medford even when the other nurse had died. She never
hesitated for--"

"Has one of our people got this case?" inquired Lloyd.

"Of course. Didn't I tell you?"

"I hope we cure it," said Lloyd, her trunk-tray in her hands. "I don't
think we have ever lost a case yet when good nursing could pull it
through, and in typhoid the whole treatment really is the nursing."

"Lloyd," said Miss Douglass decisively, "I would give anything I can
think of now to have been on that hip disease case of yours and have
brought my patient through as you did. You should hear what Dr. Street
says of you--and the little girl's father. By the way, I h