Constance told him how she felt, of her general lassitude and the big, throbbing veins in her temples.

“Ah—­a woman’s headaches!” he smiled, adding, “Nothing serious, however, in this case, as far as I can see.  We can fix this one all right, I think.”

He wrote out a prescription quickly and handed it to Constance.

“Of course,” he added, as he pocketed his fee, “it makes no difference to me personally, but I would advise that you have it filled at Muller’s—­Miss Gordon knows the place.  I think Muller’s drugs are perhaps fresher than those of most druggists, and that makes a great deal of difference.”

He had risen and was politely and suavely bowing them out of another door, at the same time by pressing a button signifying to his attendant to admit the next patient.

Constance had preceded Adele, and, as she passed through the other door, she overheard the doctor whisper to her friend, “I’m going to stop for you to-night to take a ride.  I have something important I want to say to you.”

She did not catch Adele’s answer, but as they left the marble and onyx, brass-grilled entrance, Adele remarked:  “That’s his car—­over there.  Oh, but he is a reckless driver—­dashes along pell-mell—­but always seems to have his eye out for everything—­never seems to be arrested, never in an accident.”

Constance turned in the direction of the car and was startled to see the familiar face of Drummond across the street dodging behind it.  What was it now, she wondered—­a divorce case, a scandal—­what?

The medicine was made up into little powders, to be taken until they gave relief, and Constance folded the paper of one, poured it on the back of her tongue and swallowed a glass of water afterward.

Her head continued to throb, but she felt a sense of well-being that she had not before.  Adele urged her to take another, and Constance did so.

The second powder increased the effect of the first marvelously.  But Constance noticed that she now began to feel queer.  She was not used to taking medicine.  For a moment she felt that she was above, beyond the reach of ordinary rules and laws.  She could have done any sort of physical task, she felt, no matter how difficult.  She was amazed at herself, as compared to what she had been only a few moments before.

“Another one?” asked Adele finally.

Constance was by this time genuinely alarmed at the sudden unwonted effect on herself.  “N-no,” she replied dubiously, “I don’t think I want to take any more, just yet.”

“Not another?” asked Adele in surprise.  “I wish they would affect me that way.  Sometimes I have to take the whole dozen before they have any effect.”

They chatted for a few minutes, and finally Adele rose.

“Well,” she remarked with a nervous twitching of her body, as if she were eager to be doing something, “I really must be going.  I can’t say I feel any too well myself.”