“I do not know what Miller’s social value may be,” replied Dr. Burns, stoutly, “or whether you gain or lose by your attitude toward him.  I have invited him here in a strictly professional capacity, with which his color is not at all concerned.”

“Dr. Burns does not quite appreciate Major Carteret’s point of view,” said Dr. Price.  “This is not with him an unimportant matter, or a mere question of prejudice, or even of personal taste.  It is a sacred principle, lying at the very root of our social order, involving the purity and prestige of our race.  You Northern gentlemen do not quite appreciate our situation; if you lived here a year or two you would act as we do.  Of course,” he added, diplomatically, “if there were no alternative—­if Dr. Burns were willing to put Dr. Miller’s presence on the ground of imperative necessity”—­

“I do nothing of the kind, sir,” retorted Dr. Burns with some heat.  “I have not come all the way from Philadelphia to undertake an operation which I cannot perform without the aid of some particular physician.  I merely stand upon my professional rights.”

Carteret was deeply agitated.  The operation must not be deferred; his child’s life might be endangered by delay.  If the negro’s presence were indispensable he would even submit to it, though in order to avoid so painful a necessity, he would rather humble himself to the Northern doctor.  The latter course involved merely a personal sacrifice—­the former a vital principle.  Perhaps there was another way of escape.  Miller’s presence could not but be distasteful to Mrs. Carteret for other reasons.  Miller’s wife was the living evidence of a painful episode in Mrs. Carteret’s family, which the doctor’s presence would inevitably recall.  Once before, Mrs. Carteret’s life had been endangered by encountering, at a time of great nervous strain, this ill-born sister and her child.  She was even now upon the verge of collapse at the prospect of her child’s suffering, and should be protected from the intrusion of any idea which might add to her distress.

“Dr. Burns,” he said, with the suave courtesy which was part of his inheritance, “I beg your pardon for my heat, and throw myself upon your magnanimity, as between white men”—­

“I am a gentleman, sir, before I am a white man,” interposed Dr. Burns, slightly mollified, however, by Carteret’s change of manner.

“The terms should be synonymous,” Carteret could not refrain from saying.  “As between white men, and gentlemen, I say to you, frankly, that there are vital, personal reasons, apart from Dr. Miller’s color, why his presence in this house would be distasteful.  With this statement, sir, I throw myself upon your mercy.  My child’s life is worth more to me than any earthly thing, and I must be governed by your decision.”

Dr. Burns was plainly wavering.  The clock moved with provoking slowness.  Miller would be there in five minutes.