"Katherine came home from the Ronalds' this morning much disturbed."
"Over the case?"
"Yes--that, and--the fact of your being what she hadn't supposed."
Dr. Ballard looked his question.
"She feels overawed, now she's aware _what a great man are you_. A bit
sheepish, too, I fancy, because, if I remember right, she has twitted
you, more than once, on being worn out waiting for patients."
"Well, what of it? Suppose she has? I can stand chaffing, I hope. And
besides, she was right. I _am_ worn out waiting for patients--waiting
for patients to 'do the rest' after I've, so to speak, 'pressed the
button.'"
"It's hard to believe you're the Daniel Ballard of Boston there's so
much fuss about. Are you sure you're the man Elihu Webster meant? The
man he called a celebrated specialist--the best skill in New
England--and so forth and so forth?"
"I'm the only M.D. of my name in Boston," the young man said simply.
"But I don't call myself a specialist, much less and-so-forth
and-so-forth!"
"What do you call yourself, then?"
"A physician."
"I wish I had married your grandfather," Madam Crewe announced.
Daniel Ballard bent his head, acknowledging what was more than mere
compliment, by a silence sincerer than words.
"I must go. Where's Katherine?" he asked, after a moment.
"I don't know. Not at home, I fancy. Will you do me a favor?"
"If I can."
"Don't try to see her for a while. Leave her alone."
He had risen to go, but her words checked him.
"I can't give you any such promise," he said. "It seems a strange
request for you to make."
"You don't trust me?"
"No. Not in this."
"You may."
He hesitated. "Perhaps. Still--I give no promise. I'll think it over.
When I have more time, you'll explain?"
"Perhaps," she echoed.
The next minute she was alone.
However she accomplished it, Madam Crewe had her way. Katherine did not
see Dr. Ballard again before he left for Boston. He left a brief note
explaining that Mr. Ronald refused to release him, even after Dr.
Webster arrived with his brace of nurses.
Katherine read the letter with a bitter smile. Technically, she had
nothing to complain of. She had definitely said she would never marry
him. He had taken her at her word--and yet, his easy acquiescence hurt
her cruelly. It did not _explain_ anything, that Mr. Ronald himself
confessed his dependence on Dr. Ballard.
The saving of his wife and baby (a miracle, Dr. Webster called it) made
Frank Ronald feel that, whoever came or went, "Ballard" and Martha
Slawson could not be spared from Claire's bedside, until the danger was
over, recovery absolutely certain.