or two advancing rapidly. I attended his wife a few days ago, and
saw her yesterday afternoon, when she was continuing to do well.
There were some indications of excitement about her, though whether
from mental or physical causes I could not tell, but nothing to
awaken concern. This morning I found her in a most critical
condition. Puerperal fever had set in, with evident extensive
peritoneal involvement. The case was malignant, all the abdominal
viscera being more or less affected. I learned from the nurse that
Mr. Ridley was away all night, and that Mrs. Ridley, who was
restless and feverish through the evening, became agitated and
slightly delirious after twelve o'clock, talking about and calling
for her husband, whom she imagined dying in the storm, that now
raged with dreadful violence. No help could be had all night; and
when we saw her this morning, it was too late for medicine to
control the fatal disease which was running its course with almost
unprecedented rapidity. She was dying when I saw her at half-past
eleven this morning. This case and that of Mrs. Voss were the ones
that drew so largely on my time this morning, and helped to disturb
me so much, and both were in consequence of Mr. Birtwell's party."

"They might have an indirect connection with the party," returned
Doctor Kline, "but can hardly be called legitimate consequences."

"They are legitimate consequences of the free wine and brandy
dispensed at Mr. Birtwell's," said Doctor Hillhouse. "Tempted by its
sparkle and flavor, Archie Voss, as pure and promising a young man
as you will find in the city, was lured on until he had taken more
than his brain would bear. In this state he went out at midnight
alone in a blinding storm and lost his way--how or where is not yet
known. He may have been set upon and robbed and murdered in his