tood away from her. She was absorbed in her work upon the
instant--alert, watchful, self-reliant. What the case was she could only
surmise. How long she would be away she had no means of knowing--a week,
a month, a year, she could not tell. But she was ready for any
contingency. Usually the doctors informed the nurses as to the nature of
the case at the time of sending for them, but Dr. Street had not done so
now.

However, Rownie called up to her that her coupe was at the door. Lloyd
caught up her satchels and ran down the stairs, crying good-bye to Miss
Douglass, whom she saw at the farther end of the hall. In the hallway by
the vestibule she changed the slide bearing her name from the top to the
bottom of the roster.

"How about your mail?" cried Miss Douglass after her.

"Keep it here for me until I see how long I'm to be away," answered
Lloyd, her hand upon the knob. "I'll let you know."

Lewis had put Rox in the shafts, and while the coupe spun over the
asphalt at a smart clip Lloyd tried to remember where she had heard of
the address before. Suddenly she snapped her fingers; she knew the case,
had even been assigned to it some eight months before.

"Yes, yes, that's it--Campbell--wife dead--Lafayette Avenue--little
daughter, Hattie--hip disease--hopeless--poor little baby."

Arriving at the house, Lloyd found the surgeon, Dr. Street, and Mr.
Campbell, who was a widower, waiting for her in a small drawing-room off
the library. The surgeon was genuinely surprised and delighted to see
her. Most of the doctors of the City knew Lloyd for the best trained
nurse in the hospitals.

"Oh, it's you, Miss Searight; good enough!" The surgeon introduced her
to the little patient's father, adding: "If any one can pull us through,
Campbell, it will be Miss Searight."

The surgeon and nurse began to discuss the case.

"I think you know it already, don't you, Miss Searight?" said the
surgeon. "You took care of it a while last winter. Well, there was a
little improvement in the spring, not so much pain, but that in itself
is a bad sign. We have done what we could, Farnham and I. But it don't
yield to treatment; you know how these things are--stubborn. We made a
preliminary examination yesterday. Sinuses have occurred, and the probe
leads down to nothing but dead bone. Farnham and I had a consultation
this morning. We must play our last card. I shall exsect the joint
to-morrow."

Mr. Campbell drew in his breath and held