Those few strokes of the tiny brush had rendered that unsuspicious-looking cake of soap as deadly as the bite of a cobra. The culture was in glucose bouillon, and if any inquisitive person had smelt the soap he would have detected a peculiar burnt odour of the particular bacillus which I had employed.
These, if submitted to the microscope, would have been found to be of drumstick form, slender organisms developing filamentous forms which could be easily identified by an expert in "bugs."
Truly a knowledge of bacteriology is of greatest use to the medical man!
Mrs. Auberon appeared at breakfast, fresh and charming in a neat grey gown of the latest mode, and surely no one would suspect her of being haunted by that terrible dread of exposure. Her face betrayed not the slightest anxiety, and it was with superb coolness that, when later on we were alone in the morning-room, she asked:
"Well, doctor, what are your plans?"
"They are already laid," I replied. "Allow your visitor to have my dressing-room—exactly as it is at present, nothing touched. Give careful instructions to the maids, and then treat your friend diplomatically for say four,
