"No, she refused to let me show it you. I took it. To-night was the only chance, for she is going away to-morrow and will take it with her."
"And how about your Presbyterian conscience?" Still with a twinkle.
"Silenced, for the present. But look at it quickly for the silence may not last. It seemed that I simply had to help mother, in spite of herself. And there was no other way. All the same I shall despise myself when I get time to think."
The doctor took the paper with a smile. "When that time comes I shall argue with you, though argument rarely affects feeling. To my mind you are doing an eminently sensible thing."
He opened the paper and peered at it under the lamp; looked quickly up at the girl's eager face and then from her to the paper again.
"What is it?" she asked anxiously.
"Why—I don't know. Where did you get this?"
"In the secret drawer of father's desk."
"Was the prescription always kept there?"
"Yes."