"Chills."
It seemed as though she must break down again, but the Doctor stopped her savagely.
"Well, my dear madam, don"t cry! Come, now, you"re making too much of a small matter. Why, what are chills? We"ll break them in forty-eight hours. He"ll have the best of care. You needn"t cry! Certainly this isn"t as bad as when you were there."
She was still, but shook her head. She couldn"t agree to that.
"Doctor, will you attend him?"
"Mine is a female ward."
"I know; but"--
"Oh--if you wish it--certainly; of course I will. But now, where have you moved, Mrs. Richling? I sent"-- He looked up over his desk toward that of Narcisse.
The Creole had been neither deaf nor idle. Hospital? Then those children in Prieur street had told him right. He softly changed his coat and shoes. As the physician looked over the top of the desk Narcisse"s silent form, just here at the left, but out of the range of vision, pa.s.sed through the door and went downstairs with the noiselessness of a moonbeam.
Mary explained the location and arrangement of her residence.
"Yes," she said, "that"s the way your clerk must have overlooked us. We live behind--down the alleyway."
"Well, at any rate, madam," said the Doctor, "you are here now, and before you go I want to"-- He drew out his pocket-book.
There was a quick gesture of remonstrance and a look of pleading.
"No, no, Doctor, please don"t! please don"t! Give my poor husband one more chance; don"t make me take that. I don"t refuse it for pride"s sake!"
"I don"t know about that," he replied; "why do you do it?"
"For his sake, Doctor. I know just as well what he"d say--we"ve no right to take it anyhow. We don"t know when we could pay it back." Her head sank. She wiped a tear from her hand.
"Why, I don"t care if you never pay it back!" The Doctor reddened angrily.
Mary raised her veil.
"Doctor,"--a smile played on her lips,--"I want to say one thing." She was a little care-worn and grief-worn; and yet, Narcisse, you should have seen her; you would not have slipped out.
"Say on, madam," responded the Doctor.
"If we have to ask anybody, Doctor, it will be you. John had another situation, but lost it by his chills. He"ll get another. I"m sure he will." A long, broken sigh caught her unawares. Dr. Sevier thrust his pocket-book back into its place, compressing his lips and giving his head an unpersuaded jerk. And yet, was she not right, according to all his preaching? He asked himself that. "Why didn"t your husband come to see me, as I requested him to do, Mrs. Richling?"
She explained John"s being turned away from the door during the Doctor"s illness. "But anyhow, Doctor, John has always been a little afraid of you."
The Doctor"s face did not respond to her smile.
"Why, you are not," he said.
"No." Her eyes sparkled, but their softer light quickly returned. She smiled and said:--
"I will ask a favor of you now, Doctor."
They had risen, and she stood leaning sidewise against his low desk and looking up into his face.
"Can you get me some sewing? John says I may take some."
The Doctor was about to order two dozen shirts instanter, but common sense checked him, and he only said:--
"I will. I will find you some. And I shall see your husband within an hour. Good-by." She reached the door. "G.o.d bless you!" he added.
"What, sir?" she asked, looking back.
But the Doctor was reading.
CHAPTER XX.
ALICE.
A little medicine skilfully prescribed, the proper nourishment, two or three days" confinement in bed, and the Doctor said, as he sat on the edge of Richling"s couch:--
"No, you"d better stay where you are to-day; but to-morrow, if the weather is good, you may sit up."
Then Richling, with the unreasonableness of a convalescent, wanted to know why he couldn"t just as well go home. But the Doctor said again, no.
"Don"t be impatient; you"ll have to go anyhow before I would prefer to send you. It would be invaluable to you to pa.s.s your entire convalescence here, and go home only when you are completely recovered.
But I can"t arrange it very well. The Charity Hospital is for sick people."
"And where is the place for convalescents?"
"There is none," replied the physician.
"I shouldn"t want to go to it, myself," said Richling, lolling pleasantly on his pillow; "all I should ask is strength to get home, and I"d be off."
The Doctor looked another way.
"The sick are not the wise," he said, abstractedly. "However, in your case, I should let you go to your wife as soon as you safely could." At that he fell into so long a reverie that Richling studied every line of his face again and again.
A very pleasant thought was in the convalescent"s mind the while. The last three days had made it plain to him that the Doctor was not only his friend, but was willing that Richling should be his.
At length the physician spoke:--
"Mary is wonderfully like Alice, Richling."
"Yes?" responded Richling, rather timidly. And the Doctor continued:--