The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1924-10-31
CHAPTER III-Continued

you're fool You don't know
when you are well off. tell you, I
wash my hands Of you. This is final"
Joan could not help but hear. And
as she emerged into the passage. all
the time hearing the sounds Of the
quarreling voices. Myers came hurry
ing past.
He did not see her.. He ran to the
door, flung it open, and rushed down
the steps into the street. AS he went
along the passage the girl saw him
staring right and left; then. as she
came out. he saw her and went toward
her. She knew that it was she whom
he had been seeking.
"What was it Doctor Lancaster was
saying to you, Miss Wentworth, before
came in?"' he asked in his rasping
tone.
Joan stared at him in astonishment.
Now she realized that she had mis-
taken him; he was not>a servant, but
apparently member of the doctors
household.
\. ''Will you let me pass, pleaseT
asked Joan, as he blocked the way.
II want to know what the doctor
was saying to you," repeated the man
doSgedly.
fare you going to refuse me pas
sage?" demanded the girl, flushing
with anger. 's
He stepped aside with a sneer and
q mock bow. 20. very well, If that's
your attitude" he answered. II shall
find out"
Joan turned swiftly upon him. II
don't know who you are, but shall
complain of you to Doctor Lancaster"
she said.
Myers looked at her and sneered
and chuckled Then, without a word,
he went back into the doctors room.
And still the voices kept up their
quarreling dialogue.
Joan found herself in the street in
the twilight, and now the unreality of
the absurd interview struck home to
her. She tried to puzzle it out. Be
fore she reached the boarding house
she thought she had her clue.
That Lancaster. the terror Of the
nurses, should have been unable to
promise immediate reinstatement, his
evident goodwill. his indecision and
illness were explicable only in one
way. The man Myers must be a rel
alive, the third man perhaps a nephew.
Lancaster had been supporting a
worthless pair in idleness, and had
turned on them in evaporation. That
was the meaning of his look of illness,
ais preoccupation-the shock of some
domestic discovery.
At any rate she was satisfied with
some such solution. And she was GER
tain that. if she pleased him with her
mysterious mission, her reinstatement
would follow. She went home happy,
and Mrs. Webb read the news in her
face the moment she opened the door.
II knew it. my dear" she exclaimed
with pleasure. II knew that you could
twist that old devil round your finger
If you tried hard enough"
"Afrs. Webb, 1t was nothing of the
kind" said Joan. "And Doctor Lam
caster is one of the kindest of men.
He's going to try to have his decision
reversed. and-Mrs. Webb, he is send
ing me TO sanitarium. on a case. in
the meantime"
She checked herself, suddenly re-
membering Lancaster's, caution. But
Mrs. Webb took the girl to her wide
bosom and kissed her.
you little humbugw she said.
Mrs. Webb" cried Joan, scandal
lied, "if you knew"
But when she was upstairs she sat
down suddenly and faced her con-
science. What impression Of herself
had she given in the consulting room?
She did not know. This scene, like
that of the morning. had become
blurred in her memory, and time had
begun to flow very fast after the slow
ness of her twenty-five years. Ger
tainly stranger things had happened