Part 102 (1/2)
”Doctor, you say you are going away to-night?” This from the city physician to Dr. Balsam.
”No, sir; I shall stay for a day or two.” The fingers of the sleeper quite closed on his hand. ”I have several old friends here. In fact, this little girl is one of them, and I want to get her up.”
The look of the other changed, and he cleared his throat with a dry, metallic cough.
”You may rest satisfied that everything has been done for the patient that science can do,” he said stiffly.
”I think so. We won't rest till we get the little girl up,” said the older doctor. ”Now we will take off our coats and work.”
Once more the fingers of the sleeper almost clutched his.
When the door closed, Lois turned her head and opened her eyes, and when the wheels were heard driving away she looked at the Doctor with a wan little smile, which he answered with a twinkle.
”When did you come?” she asked faintly. It was the first sign of interest she had shown in anything for days.
”A young friend of mine, Gordon Keith, told me you were sick, and asked me to come, and I have just arrived. He brought me up.” He watched the change in her face.
”I am so much obliged to you. Where is he now?”
”He is here. Now we must get well,” he said encouragingly. ”And to do that we must get a little sleep.”
”Very well. You are going to stay with me?”
”Yes.”
”Thank you”; and she closed her eyes tranquilly and, after a little, fell into a doze.
When the Doctor came out of the sick-room he had done what the other physicians had not done and could not do. He had fathomed the case, and, understanding the cause, he was able to prescribe the cure.
”With the help of G.o.d we will get your little girl well,” he said to Miss Abby.
”I begin to hope, and I had begun to despair,” she said. ”It was good of you to come.”
”I am glad I came, and I will come whenever you want me, Abby,” replied the old Doctor, simply.
From this time, as he promised, so he performed. He took off his coat, and using the means which the city specialist had suggested, he studied his patient's case and applied all his powers to the struggle.
The great city doctor recorded the case among his cures; but in his treatment he did not reckon the sleepless hours that that country doctor had sat by the patient's bedside, the unremitting struggle he had made, holding Death at bay, inspiring hope, and holding desperately every inch gained.
When the Doctor saw Keith he held out his hand to him. ”I am glad you sent for me.”
”How is she, Doctor? Will she get well?”
”I trust so. She has been under some strain. It is almost as if she had had a shock.”
Keith's mind sprang back to that evening in the Park, and he cursed Wickersham in his heart.
”Possibly she has had some strain on her emotions?”
Keith did not know.
”I understand that there is a young man here who has been in love with her for some time, and her aunt thinks she returned the sentiment.”