THE SICK-A-BED LADY
ately and seemed to find her only comfort in his presence, but when she talked to him it was babbling talk of things and places he could not understand. All the village feared for the imminent tragedy in the great white house, and mourned the pathetic ab sence of the young husband, and the Young Doctor went his sorrowful way cursing that other "boy" who had wrought this final disaster on a girl's life.
But when the Sick-A-Bed Lady's hour of trial came and some one held the merciful cone of ether to her face, the Sick-A-Bed Lady took one deep, heedless breath, then gave suddenly a great gasp, snatched the cone from her face, struggled up and stretched out her arms and cried, "Boy—Boy!"
The Young Doctor came running to her and saw that her eyes were big and startled and sharp with terror:
"Oh, Boy—Boy," she cried, "the Ether!—I remember everything now—I—was his wife—the Old Doctor's Wife!"
The Young Doctor tried to replace the cone, but she beat at him furiously with her hands, crying:
"No, No, No!—If you give me Ether I shall die thinking of him!—Oh, no!—n-o!"
The Young Doctor's face was like chalk. His knees shook under him.
"My God!" he said, "what can I give you!"
The Sick-A-Bed Lady looked up at him and
28
