“I’ve discharged myself from the case,” he said.  He spoke quietly, but his voice vibrated with feeling.  “It was the only thing to do.  No man could keep on with a case where the family were secretly following the consultant’s directions, instead of those of the physician in charge.  But,—­for your sake, little wife, I’ve done something I never would have believed I’d do.”

She sat up, her eyes fixed on the dim outlines of his face.  “Tell me!” she urged.

“To begin with, I had it out with them, and let them know I understood the situation perfectly—­and had understood it all along.  That I couldn’t stay with people who had lost faith in me.  That if I were out of it they could have the full benefit of Van Horn’s orders, and the nurses would be relieved of a mighty difficult situation.  I suppose you don’t know—­few people do—­that it’s a bad breach of professional ethics for a consultant to conduct himself so that he throws doubt on the ability of the man in charge?  In this case it was a piece of outrageous—­” He caught himself up.  “I can’t get going on that, or—­those fires won’t stay banked!”

She had his hand in both hers, and she lifted it to her lips.  He drew a smothered breath or two, and went on.

“They were glad enough to see me out of it.  Van Horn was—­also glad!  You see,—­within the last few hours the patient had lost ground—­Van’s prognosis was being verified.  But, when it came to taking leave of the patient, there was the dickens to pay.  His pulse jumped and his temperature went up, and there was trouble for fair.  He begged me not to leave him.  From the start his faith has been pinned tight to me.  The family hadn’t reckoned with that.  They found themselves obliged to reckon with it.  They saw I must be kept, or the game would be up in short order.”

“Oh, then you had to stay!”

“Yes, I had to stay—­but—­I couldn’t!  Van Horn was in charge, and the family wanted him in charge.”

“But the patient would die if you didn’t stay.  You couldn’t let professional etiquette—­”

“Couldn’t you, though?  You’ve got to observe the rules of the game, Ellen, or you’ll be in a worse mess than if you disregard them.  After I had resigned the case, unless Van Horn took himself out of it I could have no recognized place in the house.  He could have invited me, in the emergency, to share responsibility equally with himself—­but would he do that?  Never!  There was just one thing I could do,—­let the patient think I was still in charge, and continue to see him, while Van Horn ran things and so satisfied the family.”

“Oh, Red, they couldn’t ask you to do that?”

“That was what they did ask.  I saw ‘red’ then, for a minute, I can tell you.  You can’t understand just what a humiliation that would be,—­it’s more than you could expect of any man—­”

“But with the patient needing you—­”

“I know,—­but it’s an anomalous position, just the same—­an unbearable one.  Not one man in a thousand would consider it for an instant.  But it’s the one I’ve accepted—­for you!”