WE have seen how it was with Doctor Hillhouse on the morning of the
day fixed for the operation. The very danger that Mr. Carlton sought
to avert in his rejection of Doctor Kline was at his door. Not
having attended the party at Mr. and Mrs. Birtwell's, he did not
know that Doctor Hillhouse had, with most of the company, indulged
freely in wine. If a suspicion of the truth had come to him, he
would have refused to let the operation proceed. But like a
passenger in some swiftly-moving car who has faith in the clear head
and steady hand of the engineer, his confidence in Doctor Hillhouse
gave him a feeling of security.

But far from this condition of faith in himself was the eminent
surgeon in whom he was reposing his confidence. He had, alas!
tarried too long at the feast of wine and fat things dispensed by
Mr. Birtwell, and in his effort to restore the relaxed tension of
his nerves by stimulation had sent too sudden an impulse to his
brain, and roused it to morbid action. His coffee failed to soothe
the unquiet nerves, his stomach turned from the food on which he had
depended for a restoration of the equipoise which the night's
excesses had destroyed. The dangerous condition of Mrs. Ridley and
his forced visit to that lady in the early morning, when he should
have been free from all unusual effort and excitement, but added to
his disturbance.

Doctor Hillhouse knew all about the previous habits of Mr. Ridley,
and was much interested in his case. He had seen with hope and
pleasure the steadiness with which he was leading his new life, and
was beginning to have strong faith in his future. But when he met
him on that morning, he knew by unerring signs that the evening at