the dishes put away, Marcia Lowe faced
her gloomy guest with deep, serious eyes.

"You feel you owe me something, Mr. Morley?" she asked. They were
sitting opposite each other by the hearth; a pouring rain dashed
against the window and a rising wind howled through the trees. A sleek
yellow cat turned around two or three times and then settled
comfortably at Marcia Lowe's feet and purred happily.

"I do that, mum."

"You are--willing to do something for me--for Sandy, but most of all
for yourself?"

Morley was becoming accustomed to the little doctor's quaint way of
putting questions, but her manner still puzzled him.

"Yes, ma'am," he answered confusedly.

"Then listen, Martin Morley. I want to save you, first of all for
yourself--next for that boy of yours, who, I somehow feel confident,
will come back to honour us all. I believe I can do what I have in
mind--there is a little risk, very little, but will you run it for me?"

Morley's thin face twitched. Many emotions swayed him. Doubt,
suspicion, superstition, the ingrained revolt of sex--the male
resenting this power of the female--all, all held part in Morley's
mind, weakened by trouble and malnutrition, but above all was the
innate yearning to prove himself for Sandy. Martin had the supreme
instinct of parenthood.

"You know you were willing to die for him, Mr. Morley. Are you not
willing to run the chance of a better, cleaner life?"

Marcia Lowe was bending forward now, her face radiant and inspired--she
looked young, lovely and compassionate.

"I--I--don't follow you, ma'am." Poor Martin was caught in the toils
of the enthusiast.

"Then listen. I have studied and--conquered to a certain extent--a
great and noble help for humanity--but I am hampered in my work because
I am a woman. Oh! no one--no man can understand how terrible it is for
us women to look beyond the man and woman part of life and see _human
beings_ needing us, crying out to us, and for us, to realize that often
we might help, in our own way best of all--if only something, over
which we have no control, did not bar us. You see, men have no right
to deprive human beings of any assistance the world can give. If we
women tell men of our hopes and our beliefs, they accept or decline as
they think best--and so much is lost! Why, I have been pleading with
The Forge doctor ever since I came, to work with me in doing what I
long to do, and he will not--he laughs! I am not rich en