cotton, and her red mouth lipping sort of twitchy at the edge of a bandage. Oh, it was awful! But Zillah didn’t seem to care so much. There was a new interne there, a Japanese, and I guess she was sort of taken with him. “But, my God, Zillah,” I said, “_your_ life was worth more than that old dame’s!” “Shut your noise!” says Zillah. “It was my job, and there’s no kick coming.” Helene burst right out crying, she did. “Shut _your_ noise, too!” says Zillah, just as cool as you please. “Bah! There’s other lives and other chances.” “Oh, you believe that now?” cries Helene. “Oh, you do believe that now, what the Bible promises you?” That was when Zillah shrugged her shoulders so funny, the little way she had. Gee! but her eyes were big! “I don’t pretend to know what your old Bible says,” she choked. “It was the Yale feller who was tellin’ me.” That’s all, Dr. Faber. It was her shrugging her shoulders so funny that brought on the hemorrhage, I guess. Oh, we had an awful time, sir, going home in the carriage, Helene and I. We both cried, of course, because Zillah was dead, but after we got through crying for that, Helene kept right on crying because she couldn’t understand why a brave girl like Zillah _had_ to be dead. Gee! but Helene takes things hard! Ladies do, I guess. I hope you’re having a pleasant spree. Oh, I forgot to tell you that one of the wall-paperers is living here at the house with us just now. We use him so much, it’s truly a good deal more convenient. And he’s a real nice young fellow, and he plays the piano finely, and he comes from up my way. And it seemed more neighborly, anyway. It’s so large in the house at night just now, and so creaky in the garden. With kindest regards, good-by for now, from ~Rae~. P.S. Don’t tell your guide or _any one_, but Helene sent Zillah’s mother a check for fifteen hundred dollars. I saw it with my own eyes. And all Zillah asked for that day was just a little blue serge suit. It seems she’d promised her kid sister a little blue serge suit for July, and it sort of worried her. Helene sent the little blue serge suit, too, and a hat. The hat had bluebells on it. Do you think when you come home, if I haven’t spent too much money on wall-papers, that I could have a blue hat with bluebells on it? Excuse me for bothering you, but you forgot to leave me enough money. It was some indefinite, pleasant time on Thursday, the twenty-fifth of June, that the Senior Surgeon received the second letter. It was Friday, the twenty-sixth of June, exactly at dawn, that the Senior Surgeon started homeward. (To be concluded) THE GENTLE READER BY ARTHUR DAVISON FICKE