, acts--concrete, substantial,
material acts. The greatest and happiest day of her life had been when
at last she laid her bare hand upon the rough, hard stone of the house
in the square and looked up at the facade, her dull-blue eyes flashing
with the light that so rarely came to them, while she murmured between
her teeth:

"I--did--this."

As she recalled this moment now, leaning upon her elbows, looking down
upon the trees and grass and asphalt of the square, and upon a receding
landau, a wave of a certain natural pride in her strength, the
satisfaction of attainment, came to her. Ah! she was better than other
women; ah! she was stronger than other women; she was carrying out a
splendid work. She straightened herself to her full height abruptly,
stretching her outspread hands vaguely to the sunlight, to the City, to
the world, to the great engine of life whose lever she could grasp and
could control, smiling proudly, almost insolently, in the consciousness
of her strength, the fine steadfastness of her purpose. Then all at once
the smile was struck from her lips, the stiffness of her poise suddenly
relaxed. There, there it was again, the terror, the dreadful fear she
dared not name, back in its place once more--at her side, at her
shoulder, at her throat, ready to clutch at her from out the dark.

She wheeled from the window, from the sunlight, her hands clasped before
her trembling lips, the tears brimming her dull-blue eyes. For
forty-eight hours she had fought this from her. But now it was no longer
to be resisted.

"No, no," she cried half aloud. "I am no better, no stronger than the
others. What does it all amount to when I know that, after all, I am
just a woman--just a woman whose heart is slowly breaking?"

But there was an interruption. Rownie had knocked twice at her door
before Lloyd had heard her. When Lloyd had opened the door the girl
handed her a card with an address written on it in the superintendent's
hand.

"This here jus' now come in f'om Dr. Street, Miss Lloyd," said Rownie;
"Miss Bergyn" (this was the superintendent nurse) "ast me to give it to
you."

It was a call to an address that seemed familiar to Lloyd at first; but
she did not stop at that moment to reflect. Her stable telephone hung
against the wall of the closet. She rang for Lewis, and while waiting
for him to get around dressed for the street.

For the moment, at the prospect of action, even her haunting fear drew
off and s