"So you are the doctor's confidant! You are the doctor's adviser! You are set up before me, about the doctor's business. You! You, indeed! Have you argued the matter out with the devil, as to how far you can go with a minister?" "I never argue with the devil. 'Get thee behind me' is enough for him." "I perfectly think scorn of you and your pretensions. I suppose the doctor is trying to save your soul!" "My soul is saved." "You are an impertinent huzzy!" "I do not intend to be impertinent--and I do not deserve such a contemptuous word as huzzy." "You are a fifty-fold huzzy! You are not reading. Lift your eyes and look at me!" "I would rather not." "I say, look at me. Why do you keep your eyes dropped? Do you think yourself beautiful in that attitude? You are full of tricks." Then Theodora lifted her eyes and looked steadily at her tormentor. They were pleading and reproachful, and full of tears. "I should like to be alone," she said slowly, "I am not well." "I wish to know the minister's business." "I must tell Robert first." "I must tell Robert first," cried Mrs. Campbell with mocking mimicry. "Let me tell you, Robert would rather you never spoke to him! He wishes you far away--he is sick of you, as I am--he is sorry he ever saw your face." "I do not believe these things. Will you leave me? You are very cruel--I have not deserved such abuse." Once more she dropped her eyes on her book, but the letters were blurred and the solid earth seemed reeling. "Give me that book and listen to what I say!" There was no answer. "Do you hear me? Give me that book." Theodora neither spoke nor moved, and in a tragic frenzy of passion Mrs. Campbell seized the book and flung it to the other end of the room. With a shriek, shrill yet weak, Theodora tottered to where it lay with its pages crumpled against the floor, and in the effort to lift the volume she fell like one dead beside it. Then Ducie screamed for McNab and Jepson, and the two came hurrying in. "She flung the Bible across the room! She flung the Bible!" "Stop talking, Ducie, and help me get the dress of the poor lady slackened. Jepson, run for Dr. Fleming." "I will if you say so, McNab." "Run awa', and don't stand there like a born idiot, then." "I will not have a doctor brought here," said Mrs. Campbell in passionate tones. "I will not have one! There is no necessity for a doctor. I say----" "Say nothing at all, ma'am. Do you ken it was the Bible you flung across the room? What devil put it into your heart and hand to do the like o' that unforgiveable sin? I'm feared to be in the room wi' you, mistress. You'll never dare to pray again, you meeserable woman, you!" For a few minutes Mrs. Campbell was really shocked. She went to the book, straightened out its leaves, and laid it on the table. "I did not know it was the Bible, McNab," she said. "No one respects the Holy Scriptures more than I do. I regret----"