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“It would take us fifteen minutes at least to go up and get Ferd,” objected the doctor, seriously; “and he’s not much better than I am at running it, anyway!”

“Well, I’m sorry,” said Sally, shortly, “but I simply couldn’t do it. Dr. Field should have given you more notice. It would look simply absurd for me to go tearing over these country roads at night–Elsie would go mad wondering where I was–“

They were in the village now. Troubled and stubborn, Sally stopped the car, and looked mutinously at her companion. The doctor’s rosy face was flushed under his flaming hair, and in his very blue eyes was a look that struck her with an almost panicky sensation of surprise. Sally had never seen any man regard her with an expression of distaste before, but the doctor’s look was actually inimical.

“I feared that you would be the sort of woman to fail one utterly, like this,” he said quietly. “I’ve often wondered–I’ve often said to myself, ‘COULD she ever, under any circumstances, throw off that pretty baby way of hers, and forget that this world was made just for flirting and dressing and being admired?’ By George, I see you can’t! I see you can’t! Well! Now, whom can I get to take me up there within the hour?”

He appeared to ponder. Sally sat as if stupefied.

“Don’t resent what I say when I’m upset,” said the doctor, absently. “You can’t help your limitations, I can’t help mine. I see a young woman–she’s just lost a little boy, and she’s all her husband has left–I see her dying because we’re too late. You see a few empty-headed women saying that Sally Reade actually went driving alone, without her dinner, for three hours, with a man she hardly knew. I am not blaming you. You have never pretended to be anything but what you are. I blame myself for hoping–thinking–but, by George, you’d be an utter dead weight on a man if it was ever up to you to face an epidemic, or run a risk, or do one-twentieth of the things that those very ancestors of yours, that you’re so proud of, used to do!”

Sally set her teeth. She leaned from the car to summon a small girl loitering on the road.

“You’re one of the White children, aren’t you?” said she to the child. “I want you to go up to Mrs. Ferdie Potter’s house, and tell Mrs. Potter that her sister won’t be home for several hours, and that I’ll explain later. Now,” said Sally, turning superbly to the doctor, “pull your hat down tight. We’re going FAST!”

They were three miles farther on their way before he saw that her little chin was quivering, and great tears were running down her small face. Time was precious, but for a few memorable moments they stopped the car again.

Miss Sally and Dr. Bates returned to the sleepy and excited Ferdies’ at one o’clock that night. The light that never was on land or sea glittered in Sally’s wonderful eyes; the doctor was white, shaken, and radiant. Sally flew to her sister’s arms.

“We waited to see–and she came out of it–and she has a fair fighting chance!” said Sally, joyously; and the look she gave her doctor made Elsie’s heart rise with a bound.

“Runaways,” said Elsie, “come in and eat! I never knew a serious operation to have such a cheering effect on any one before!”

“It all went so well,” said Sally, contentedly, over chicken and ginger ale. “But, Elsie! Such fun!” she burst out, her dimples suddenly again in view. “I am disgraced forever! After we had done everything to make the Bevis crowd think we were eloping, what did we do but run into the whole crowd at San Anselmo! I wish you could have seen their faces! We had said we couldn’t possibly go; and we were going too fast to stop and explain!”

“We’ll explain to-morrow,” said the doctor, so significantly that Ferdie rose instantly to grasp his hand, and Elsie fell again upon Sally as if she had never kissed her before.

“Not–not really!” gasped Elsie, turning radiantly from one to the other.

“Oh, really!” said Sally, with her prettiest color. “He despises me, but he will take the case, anyway! And he has done nothing but mortify and enrage me all day, but I feel that I should miss it if it stopped! So we are going to sacrifice our lives to each other–isn’t it edifying and beautiful of us? We’ll tell you all about it to-morrow. Jam–Sam?”