His face was toward her now. She saw that he was smiling a little. Aunt Jane nodded shrewdly. Number 16 was better!... From her place in the dark, she watched the man move about the room. He was humming softly--a half-meaningless little tune, with a tumty-tumty refrain, and his face was absent. A nurse appeared in the door and looked at him inquiringly. He glanced at her. "I want Mrs. Holbrook--yes." "Aunt Jane? I don't know where she is. I thought she came into her office." "Well--she isn't here. You can see she isn't here, can't you? Find her--please." Aunt Jane behind her crack, shivered a little as the girl turned. But the nurse had eyes and ears only for the surgeon and his impatience. She hurried away. Aunt Jane drew a free breath. The surgeon crossed to her desk and halted there. His eye rested absently on the great bunch of roses. Presently his face lighted up; he was seeing the roses! He looked at them with an air of appreciation. The little smile was still on his lips, and the tumty-tumty tune.... Slowly he leaned forward, on tiptoe, and--smelled of them and nodded approval. Aunt Jane's hands made swift, darting touches at her cap and her apron and her hair and she got up quickly.... Perhaps he would go away! But Dr. Carmon's eye had fallen on the little card under the vase and he took it up--and read the name with near-sighted curious gaze, and turned it over---- Aunt Jane stepped out from her place. "How is Number 16?" she asked placidly. He wheeled--the card in his hand. "Oh! You're here! I just sent for you." He waved the card. "I know. I was busy." "Funny, I didn't hear you come in!" He looked at her thoughtfully. "You were thinking of something else, maybe," said Aunt Jane tranquilly. She came up to the desk. He looked curiously at her face. "What is the matter?" he asked. "Nothing," responded Aunt Jane. "Do I look as if anything was the matter?" The face under its ink stains was serene. Dr. Carmon regarded it critically. "Soap and water--" he suggested. He pointed a helpful finger at the smudge of ink on her cheek. She lifted a quick hand. He nodded grimly. "And there's a little over there by your left ear," he said wickedly. She rubbed at the place blindly. "I must have got ink on me--when I was making up my book--" Her glance flitted toward it. Dr. Carmon's eye fell on the open page and on the smudge of Room 36. He bent forward, tapping the place with the card in his hand, and laughed out. "I never saw your book look like that!" He gazed at it and then at Aunt Jane's face--a little suspiciously. She leaned forward to inspect it. "Somebody must have spilled water--or something on it!" she said casually. "Folks are so careless here!" She laid a blotter methodically across the smudge and closed the book and put it away. Dr. Carmon surveyed the roses. "Handsome bunch of flowers!" he said carelessly. He waved the card at them.