r expressionless eyes. "Oh, you mean Julius. Yes, I told him I wanted
to see you." A quiver of animation passed like a spasm over her
features, and she inquired eagerly, "Where is he? Did he come?"

"I'm here all right," said Gershom, stepping briskly into the range of
her vision.

She gazed up at him as he approached her with the look of a famished
animal, a look so little human and so full of physical hunger that Patty
turned her eyes again to the calla lily on the window-sill, and then to
the young green on the ailantus tree and the brick wall beyond. To the
girl it seemed that minutes must have gone by before the next words
came. "You brought the medicine?"

"Yes, I brought it. The doctor gave it to me; but it is hard to get, and
he said you were to have it only on condition that you do everything
that we tell you."

"Oh, I will, I will." She reached out her hand eagerly for the package
he had taken from his coat pocket; and when Patty looked at her again a
curious change had passed over her face, revivifying it with the colour
of happiness. "I have been in such pain--such pain," she whispered. "I
was afraid it would come back before you came. Oh, I was so afraid."
Then she added hurriedly: "Is that all? Did you bring nothing else?"

Though a look of embarrassment crossed his face, he carried off the
difficult situation with his characteristic assurance. "The doctor sent
you a little stimulant. Perhaps I'd better give you a dose now. It
might pick you up." Taking a bottle from his pocket, he poured some
whiskey into a glass and added a little water from a pitcher on the
table. "There, now," he remarked, with genuine sympathy as he held the
glass to her lips. "You'll begin to feel better in a minute. This young
lady can't stay but a little while, so you'd better try to buck up."

"I'll try," answered the woman obediently. "I'll try--but it isn't easy
to come back out of hell." Lifting her head from the pillow, as if it
were a dead weight that did not belong to her, she stared at Patty while
her tormented mind made an effort to remember. In a minute her mouth
worked pathetically, and she burst into tears. "I can't come back now, I
can't come back now," she repeated in a whimpering tone. "But I'll be
better before long, and then I want to see you. There are things I want
to tell you when I get the strength. I can't think of them now, but they
are things about Gideon Vetch."

"About Father?" asked the girl, and h