The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1914-01-31

was the head nurse and had been nine
years in the hospital. During thai
time she had come to understand
many things that the sight of human
suffering teaches. She knew that Klein
lived alone in barely furnished apart
ment in a squalid district, that all his
spare time was given to the gratuitous
relief of the poor. He seemed to wish
to dedicate his life to repairing his
] hideous error.
| Klein could not be insensible to her
interest in him. In rare moments
they would talk together, and he un-
bent toward her as he did to none else
, Before six months had passed they
had come to realize, the depth of their
common interest in life. Each had
seen too much of the world to fall
easily in love, but when passion is
slow in approach it is apt to be
stronger.
Above all else Nurse Lincoln wanted
Doctor Klein to know that she had
heard his story and regarded it as a
dead element in his life. But she had
not the power to tell him so. Klein
had the faculty of withdrawing into
himself. She could not but realize
that the attraction between them was
mutual one. But the unhappy past
lay like a barrier between her and
love. If only he would give her the
chance to let her tell him! But he
gave her none.
So the weeks rolled by, and the
months, until the International con-
gress met in the city, the famous sur
geons from all parts of America and
Europe gathered to witness, among
other things, the Klein operation.
Since Drouin had disappeared the
operation had hardly ever been per-
formed with success. Klein, however,
had impaired the knowledge of it to
a number of young surgeons in the
city, and it had been done three times;
but the technic was extraordinarily
difficult.
1t was only chance that gave
Klein the opportunity to perform his
operation before the congress. The
word was passed. and, like eager stu
dents, the surgeons hurried down to
the hospital.
Nurse Lincoln's heart beat pitifully
fast as she stood by Klein and watched
his impressive face. She guessed what
he must be suffering, he the outcast,
standing under an alias before many
of his old confreres. But her hands
were steady as she took the instru-
ments from the boiling water and
placed them on the tray.
Then Klein, cool and collected pro-
ceeded, while all heads were bent and
all eyes fixed, and dead silence pre-.
vailed throughout the crowded theater.
Men packed the benches, men sat on
the steps and gathered around the
table so thickly that there was barely
room for the doctors and nurses to
move.
Klein proceeded, impassive as lee.
turer, expounding now and then in
low voice as he worked. The marvel
GUS technic, where the least slip meant
failure, the fingers, poised like steel
prongs, so little did they culver, the
inexplicable personality of the opera
tor charged the room with an electric
current of tension.
It was over! Nobody had realized
1t, SO deity did Klein work. Now the
assistants were putting in the sutures.
The patient was placed on stretcher
and wheeled out. Klein took off his
gloves and bowed.
Suddenly there came demonstra-
ton such as the staid little theater
had never known. Everybody knew
who Klein was. All cheered them
selves hoarse, standing upon the
benches and waving their hats and
shouting.
But 1t was Drouin's name, not
Klein's they called.
Professor Munczewsky, an old man
of nearly ninety, rushed up to Klein
and kissed him on both cheeks.
Come back to France, Drouin," he
said. 1--WE cannot spare you. Come
back to your work and to your country
men,"
Klein cast the slightest glance to.
ward Nurse Lincoln, but in that mo-
ment she saw that the test had come.
She looked at him, and If thoughts can
be exchanged without the medium of
words they were assuredly at that in
slant. Klein knew that she under
stood, and saw only love in her eyes.
Co." she seemed to say. go back
to your own country. l cannot follow |
you, for my work is here, and should
be a drag on you, a strange woman
in a strange land, and an ignorant one,
outside my field of work. Go back to |
your own and let the memory Of my
love shield YOU"
Klein looked round him with a faint |
smile.
"Gentlemen I foar yo,, ora y,,isto