His colorless lips were shut in a straight line and in his pain-stricken eyes there was not so much anger now as a great wonder. Was this the woman of whose acquaintance he had been proud, by whose bow of recognition he always had felt flattered; this woman whose free speech and careless good-nature he had defended against the occasional criticism of coarser minds? This woman with her reeking breath and an expression which seen through a mist of pain made her face look like that of Satan himself, was it possible that she had had his liking and respect? He was still wondering when the drowsiness of the drug seized him and he slipped away into sleep. Dr. Harpe gathered his clothes from the foot of the bed as she passed out. "Did he have anything on him, Nell?" "No." "They must have cleaned him out down below." She jerked her head toward the dance hall as she turned a pocket inside out. "A dollar watch and a jack-knife." She threw them both contemptuously upon the kitchen table. "If he wakes up bellerin', shove the needle into him--you can do it as well as I can. I'm goin' to bed." She lunged down the corridor once more and Nell Beecroft stood looking after with a curious expression of derision and contempt upon her hard face. Dr. Harpe threw herself upon the bed in one of the private rooms and soon her loud breathing told Nell Beecroft that she was in the heavy sleep of drink. The nurse opened the door and stood by the bedside looking down upon her as she lay dressed as she had come from the dance, on the outside of the counterpane. One bare arm was thrown over her head, the other was hanging limply over the edge of the bed, her loose hair was a snarled mass upon the pillow and her open mouth gave her face an empty, sodden look that was bestial. "I wonder what your swell friends would say to you now?" the woman muttered, staring at her through narrowed lids. "Those private patients that you're always bragging swear by you? What would they say if I should tell 'em that just bein' plain drunk like any common prostitute was the least of----" she checked herself and glanced into the hallway. "What would they think if they knew you as I know you--what would they say if I told them only half?" Her mouth dropped in a contemptuous smile. "They wouldn't believe me--they'd say I lied about their 'lady doc.'" She went on in sneering self-condemnation-- "I'm nothin'--just nothin'; drug up among the worst; no learnin'--no raisin'--but _her_--HER!" Nell Beecroft's lips curled in indescribable scorn. "She's _worse_ than nothin', for she's had her chanst!" There was no color in the East, only a growing light which made Dr. Harpe look ashen and haggard when she crawled from the bed and looked at herself in a square of glass on the wall.