"They're 'most always the ones to wait. They stand the pain better'n men." She stepped to one side with a quiet glance at the litter as the men bore it past. "She'll come through," she said as they followed it up the low stairway. "I wish I felt as sure," responded Dr. Carmon. Aunt Jane glanced back. A man was standing at the door, his eyes following them. She looked inquiringly toward the doctor. "Her husband," he said. "He's going to wait." Aunt Jane spoke a word to a nurse who was coming down the stairs, with a motion of her hand toward the man waiting below. The little procession entered the operating-room, and the door was shut. II It was a current belief that the Berkeley House of Mercy belonged to Aunt Jane; and I am not at all sure that Aunt Jane did not think so herself--at times. The hospital had been endowed by a rich patient in gratitude for recovery from a painful disease. She had wished to reward the surgeon who had cured her. And when Dr. Carmon had refused to accept anything beyond the very generous fee he had charged for the operation, she had built the hospital--over which he was to have absolute control. There was a nominal board of directors, and other physicians might bring their patients there. But Dr. Carmon was to be in control. The surgeon had not cared for a fortune. Dr. Carmon was not married; he had no wife and children to tie him down to a fortune. But a hospital equipped to his fingers' ends was a different matter and he had accepted it gratefully. Dr. Carmon had not always found it easy to get on with the surgical staff of his old hospital; partly perhaps, as Aunt Jane always maintained, because he was "too fond of having his own way"; and partly because he was of the type that must break ground. There were things that Dr. Carmon saw and wanted to do. And there was always a flock of malcontents at hand to peck at him if he did them. He accepted the Berkeley House of Mercy with a sense of relief and with the understanding that he was to be in absolute control. And he in turn had installed Aunt Jane as matron of the hospital--not with the understanding that she was to be in absolute control, but as being, on the whole, the most sensible woman of his acquaintance.