To Betty and Virginia...

It had lately become common chatter at Brightwood Hospital⁠—better known for three hundred miles around Detroit as Hudson’s Clinic⁠—that the chief was all but dead on his feet. The whole place buzzed ...

Slowly and carefully⁠—for he was still limp from his battle with pneumonia, resultant from the prolonged use of a lung-motor in the inexperienced hands of excited people⁠—two nurses had trundled young...

“You say he’s different,” pursued Joyce interestedly. “How do you mean⁠—different? Sober, perhaps?” Masterson chuckled. “Don’t be a fool!” she growled. “You know very well what I meant.” He returned h...

As old Nicholas arose from the table that Saturday night, he said, no more to his tall grandson than to himself, “I am glad I could live until now!” The past eight years had been dreadfully unhappy fo...

It was late afternoon of the last Sunday in September. Nancy Ashford’s snug retreat, immediately adjacent to the general administrative offices in Brightwood Hospital, had proved too small to house th...

The glowing ellipse cast by the heavily shaded lamp at the head of her bed shone upon the weapons with which young Mrs. Hudson had armed herself against drowsiness when, at midnight, she had retired w...

At one o’clock on the morning of Thanksgiving Day, young Merrick solved the riddle to which he had devoted much of his spare time for nearly two months. After only a week’s sporadic work on it, he had...

Haggard from a sleepless night and the experience of more mental agony than he had suspected himself capable of, young Merrick sank dejectedly into a club chair on an early train for Detroit. In respo...

“Grandpère,” said Bobby, slowly twirling the stem of his glass, “I wish you would tell Tom about the time you and Mr. Anderson butchered the pigs at the Country Club.” The talk had been growing too se...

Gordon’s!⁠ ⁠… Gordon’s⁠—the colourful!⁠ ⁠… Gordon’s⁠—the exotic!⁠ ⁠… Gordon’s at two-thirty in the morning!⁠ ⁠… Brilliantly lighted, packed to suffocation, strangling in the smoke, sticky with sweat; ...

“Please be seated, Mr. Merrick,” the secretary had said, stiffly, twenty minutes ago. “Dean Whitley is busy now.” A qualitative analysis of Mr. Merrick’s scowl as he sat fidgeting would have resolved ...

It was nine o’clock in the morning⁠—early September. The last of the summer trippers had gone, reluctant to leave all this beauty behind them and pledged to a prompt return⁠ ⁠… With their hands filled...

The girl with the pink hair, languorous lashes gummy with an overdose of mascara, and ugly black muffins over her ears, was informing Mr. Brent that a Doctor Merrick was in the lobby and wished to see...

Young Merrick discovered, within a week, that when a man begins to suspect he is slipping mentally his disorder fattens on itself. He became morbidly introspective, exaggerated the significance of his...

The Aquitania had crept up the river that morning with exasperating caution. It was the day before Christmas. The more impatient compared tedious experiences in customs; hoped goodwill toward men migh...

Mr. T. P. Randall was extremely solicitous in his attitude toward his charming client. She had telephoned him at ten, and they had agreed on a business conference at one-thirty. He was tall, fifty-fiv...

When Merrick arrived at his apartment shortly after midnight, he slipped out of his dinner clothes and into a dressing-gown, and told Matsu to toss another chunk of pine on the fire and go to bed. The...

The Bruce McLarens were entertaining Dr. Robert Merrick at luncheon in their cosily furnished apartment. It was Sunday, and the three of them were just back from Grace Church where the appearance of t...

Maxine Merrick, pouring their coffee in the sunny breakfast room of her over-Louised apartment in Boulevard Haussmann near the Etoile, glanced up shyly at her distinguished guest, finding it difficult...

Yes⁠—Doctor Ardmore was in, admitted the desk in the lobby, but it was to be doubted if he could be seen⁠ ⁠… Yes⁠—so very busy today⁠ ⁠… Mrs. Hudson?⁠ ⁠… She was still living⁠ ⁠… Would he sit down?⁠ ⁠...

Julie Craig was a romantic little thing, and the drama in which she had been assigned a role was quite to her liking. It was not a fat part as to voluminosity of lines, but it kept her almost continuo...

Doctor Merrick’s unusual capacity for pinpoint concentration upon problems of scientific research was not quite up to par during his collaboration with Doctor Arnstadt. The Viennese surgeon seemed eve...