Fifteen minutes later the taxi had delivered her at the Tuckerville station and she paid the driver and dismissed him. It was a smaller town than Hedgewood and she had some difficulty locating what she wanted in an imitation of a department store. Even in her haste Carmelita was characteristically careful in selecting just the style of black veiling to match her black toque hat and the becoming black, silk gown she was wearing. Her purchase made, she returned to the station and hailed a local Tuckerville taxi and instructed the driver to take her to the Soundview Hospital.
Prince Rao-Singh had said that "Mrs. Dudley" might come up at once, the one-legged man in-charge of the telephone switchboard sent word in by a trim, antiseptic nurse to the black-veiled lady waiting in the tiny reception room. The elevator had just stopped at the main floor. The elevator's speed was regulated for stretcher-cases and Carmelita wondered if she would ever reach the private ward on the third floor and get her mission over with. The floor nurse in the little cubbyhole office at the head of the stairs escorted her down the corridor to the last room on the right. The nurse opened the lid that fit over the glass peep-hole in the door and then said disapprovingly, "You may go in, madame." And Car-
