"I'll--I'll do you up yet. You're not done with me, not by a long
shot."
"I haven't a doubt o' it. I'm ready for you, any time. Likewise
_Mister_ Slawson. Only, I advise you, take it out on me. My husband
might hurt you too much, if he got goin'."
As they were driving home through the waning light, Sam told Martha he
faintly remembered hearing Ellen's knock on the door--"only he was too
tired to get up."
"You were smart to hear it through your own snores," she returned
pleasantly. "But when we get home, you must turn in, an' take a real
sleep. I'll wake you when Buller comes."
*CHAPTER X*
Dr. Ballard had been absent a fortnight or more, and July was drawing to
its close, when one afternoon Katherine heard the sound she had been
longing for all these days, the familiar musical notes of his
motor-horn.
Looking ahead expectantly, he spied her at once, and gave salute, as the
car swept up to the porch, a silent military salute. Alighting, he
passed directly upstairs to Madam Crewe's sitting-room.
Katherine followed after, drawn as if by the sense of something pending,
something too interesting to miss.
Madam Crewe glanced around as the doctor entered.
"Oho, so _you're_ back, are you?"
Dr. Ballard took a chair without waiting to be invited and said lightly,
as he seated himself facing his patient:
"You speak the truth."