it for a moment, looking out of
the window.

Very attentive, Lloyd merely nodded her head, murmuring:

"I understand."

When Dr. Street had gone Lloyd immediately set to work. The operation
was to take place at noon the following day, and she foresaw there would
be no sleep for her that night. Street had left everything to her, even
to the sterilising of his instruments. Until daylight the following
morning Lloyd came and went about the house with an untiring energy, yet
with the silence of a swiftly moving shadow, getting together the things
needed for the operation--strychnia tablets, absorbent cotton, the
rubber tubing for the tourniquet, bandages, salt, and the like--and
preparing the little chamber adjoining the sick-room as an
operating-room.

The little patient herself, Hattie, hardly into her teens, remembered
Lloyd at once. Before she went to sleep Lloyd contrived to spend an hour
in the sick-room with her, told her as much as was necessary of what
was contemplated, and, by her cheery talk, her gentleness and sympathy,
inspired the little girl with a certain sense of confidence and trust in
her.

"But--but--but just how bad will it hurt, Miss Searight?" inquired
Hattie, looking at her, wide-eyed and serious.

"Dear, it won't hurt you at all; just two or three breaths of the ether
and you will be sound asleep. When you wake up it will be all over and
you will be well."

Lloyd made the ether cone from a stiff towel, and set it on Hattie's
dressing-table. Last of all and just before the operation the gauze
sponges occupied her attention. The daytime brought her no rest. Hattie
was not to have any breakfast, but toward the middle of the forenoon
Lloyd gave her a stimulating enema of whiskey and water, following it
about an hour later by a hundredth grain of atropia. She braided the
little girl's hair in two long plaits so that her head would rest
squarely and flatly upon the pillow. Hattie herself was now ready for
the surgeon.

Now there was nothing more to be done. Lloyd could but wait. She took
her place at the bedside and tried to talk as lightly as was possible to
her patient. But now there was a pause in the round of action. Her mind
no longer keenly intent upon the immediate necessities of the moment,
began to hark back again to the one great haunting fear that for so long
had overshadowed it. Even while she exerted herself to be cheerful and
watched for the smiles on Hattie's face her hands twist