Page:The Death-Doctor.djvu/245

Rh had been seized by a desire for a Continental holiday after all. Saunderson was looking after things—his eye ever upon the lady patients—and with five hundred I could have a merry time for a week or two.

At last I bent over her hand and she left me, while I strolled along to the smoking-room, where the butler served my whisky-and-soda with great stateliness.

Then, after an excellent cigar, I ascended to my room.

Next morning, when I dressed I used the cake of soap from my dressing-case, in preference to the brand-new cake which I found in the soap-dish upon the dressing-room wash-stand.

By eight o'clock I had had my tub and was fully dressed. Therefore, I turned my careful attention to the dark brown cake of soap—a highly-perfumed tablet of a well-advertised variety. Fortunately for me, it possessed no antiseptic qualities. Therefore, with greatest care, I opened a small tube of culture which I had brought with me, and, with a camel-hair brush, lightly painted it over the surface of the soap.

It dried quickly, and I replaced it in its dish.