It is the office ring but Mary hurries at once to answer it. "Is this Dr. Blank's office?" "This is Mrs. Blank. But the doctor telephoned me about twenty minutes ago that he would be out for half an hour. Call him again in ten or fifteen minutes and I think you will find him." In about fifteen minutes the call is repeated. Mary would feel better satisfied to know that the doctor received the message so she goes to the 'phone and listens. Silence. She waits a minute. Shall she speak? She hesitates. Struggle as she will against the feeling, she can't quite overcome it--it seems like "butting in." But that long silence with the listening ear at the other end of it is too much for her. Very pleasantly, almost apologetically she asks, "What is it?" "The doctor hasn't come yet?" says a plainly disappointed voice. "No--not yet. There are often unexpected things to delay him--if you will give me your number or your name I will have him call _you_." "No, I'll just wait and call him again." The inflection says plainly, "I don't care to admit the doctor's wife into my confidences." "Very well. I am sure it can't be long now till he returns." Mary goes back to her chair and ponders a little. Of what avail to multiply words. No use to tell the woman 'phoning that she was willing to take the waiting and the watching, the seeing that the doctor received the message upon herself rather than that the other should be again troubled by it. No use to let her gently understand that she doesn't care for any confidences which belong only to her husband, but Fate has placed her in a position where she has oftentimes to seem unduly interested. That these messages which are only occasional with the one calling are constant with her and that she is only mindful of them when she must be. * * * * * "Watch the 'phone." How thoroughly instilled into Mary's consciousness that admonition was! She did not heed the office ring when it came, but if it came a second time she always went to explain that the doctor had just stepped over to the drug store probably and would be back in a very few minutes. Often, as she stood explaining, the doctor himself would break into the conversation, having been in another room when the first call came, and getting there a little tardily for the second. But occasions sometimes arose which made Mary feel very thankful that she had been at the 'phone. One winter morning as she stood explaining to some woman that the doctor would be in in a few minutes, her husband's "Hello" was heard.