leave him. From the start his faith has been pinned tight to me. The
family hadn't reckoned with that. They found themselves obliged to reckon
with it. They saw I must be kept, or the game would be up in short
order."

"Oh, then you _had_ to stay!"

"Yes, I had to stay--but--I couldn't! Van Horn was in charge, and the
family wanted him in charge."

"But the patient would die if you didn't stay. You couldn't let
professional etiquette--"

"Couldn't you, though? You've got to observe the rules of the game,
Ellen, or you'll be in a worse mess than if you disregard them. After I
had resigned the case, unless Van Horn took himself out of it I could
have no recognized place in the house. He could have invited me, in the
emergency, to share responsibility equally with himself--but would he do
that? Never! There was just one thing I could do,--let the patient think
I was still in charge, and continue to see him, while Van Horn ran things
and so satisfied the family."

"Oh, Red, they couldn't ask you to do that?"

"That was what they did ask. I saw 'red' then, for a minute, I can tell
you. You can't understand just what a humiliation that would be,--it's
more than you could expect of any man--"

"But with the patient needing you--"