continued disturbance of the accretion disk further along in azimuth. In this picture the stream-disk interaction takes place inside the disk as emphasized by the larger velocity amplitude of the S-wave with respect to the peak-to-peak amplitude of the Balmer emission lines. This interpretation suggests significant stream overflow above the outer disk and an interaction region close to the circularization radius. [ Alternatively, systematic effects leading to lower observed peak-to-peak velocities (e.g. local line broadening, Marsh 1998) would place the hot spot closer to the disk outer edge]{}.

Interstellar Absorption
-----------------------

The Echelle spectra of XTE J1118+480 obtained on April 7, 2000 reveal the presence of weak Ca[ii]{} $\lambda 3933$ absorption features, which can be used to estimate the neutral hydrogen absorption column to the source. The spectra also show Ca[ii]{} $\lambda 3968$ in absorption, with an equivalent width of order half that of Ca[ii]{} $\lambda 3933$ features, as expected for this doublet (see, e.g., Cohen 1975). Both features are seen on two overlapping orders with similar structure. The Ca[ii]{} lines are detected in some of the individual Echelle exposures with identical profiles. Figure \[fig:ca2\] shows the Ca[ii]{} $\lambda\lambda 3933,3968$ absorption features in the summed Echelle spectra. The two orders 