I laid my hand on his lips.
"Don"t, sweetheart," I pleaded. "It is enough for me to know that you are safe in my arms. Nothing else in the world matters. Just rest and get well for me."
He kissed the hand against his lips, then reached up the unbandaged arm, and with gentle fingers pulled mine away.
"But there is one thing I must talk about," he said solemnly, "something you must do for me, Madge, for I cannot get up from here to see to it. It"s a hard thing to ask you to do, but you are so brave and true, I know you will understand. Tell me, is that poor girl going to die?"
"I--I don"t know, d.i.c.ky," I faltered, salving my conscience with the thought that he must not be excited with the knowledge of Grace Draper"s true condition.
"Poor girl," he sighed. "I never dreamed she looked at things in the light she did, but I feel guilty anyhow, responsible. She must have the best of care, Madge, best physicians, best nurses, everything. I must meet all expenses, even to the ones which will be necessary if she should die."
He brought out the last words fearfully. Little drops of moisture stood on his forehead. I saw that the shock of the girl"s terrible act had unnerved him.
Nerving myself to be as practical and matter-of-fact as possible, I wiped the moisture from his brow with my handkerchief and patted his cheek soothingly.
"I will attend to everything," I promised, "just as if you were able to see to it. But you must do something for me in return; you must promise not to talk any more and try and go to sleep."
"My own precious girl," he sighed, happily, and then drowsily--
"Kiss me!"
I pressed my lips to his. His eyes closed, and with his hand clinging tightly to mine, he slept.
How long I knelt there I do not know. No one came near the room, but through the closed door I could hear the hushed hurry and movement which marks a desperate fight between life and death.
I felt numbed, bewildered. I tried to visualize what was happening outside the room, but I could not. I felt as if d.i.c.ky and I had come through some terrible shipwreck together and had been cast up on this friendly piece of sh.o.r.e.
I knew that later I would have to face my own soul in a rigid inquisition as to how far I had been to blame for this tragedy. I had been married less than a year, and yet my husband was involved in a horrible complication like this.
But my brain was too exhausted to follow that line of thought. I was content to rest quietly on my knees by the side of d.i.c.ky"s bed, with his hand in mine and my eyes fixed on his white face with the long lashes shadowing it.
At first I was perfectly comfortable, then after a while little tingling pains began to run through my back and limbs.
I dared not change my position for fear of disturbing d.i.c.ky, so I set my teeth and endured the discomfort. The sharpness of the pain gradually wore away as the minutes went by, and was succeeded by a distressing feeling of numbness extending all over my body.
Just as I was beginning to feel that the numbness must soon extend to my brain, the door opened and some one came quietly in.
My back was to the door, and so careful were the footsteps crossing the room that I could not tell who the newcomer was until I felt a firm hand gently unclasping my nervous fingers from d.i.c.ky"s. Then I looked up into the solicitous face of Dr. Pett.i.t.
"How is it that you have been left alone here so long?" he inquired indignantly, yet keeping his voice to the professional low pitch of a sick room. He put his strong, firm hands under my elbows, raised me to my feet and supported me to a chair, for my feet were like pieces of wood. I could hardly lift them.
"How long have you been kneeling there?" he demanded. "You would have fainted away if you had stayed there much longer."
"I do not know," I replied faintly, "but it doesn"t matter. Tell me, is my husband all right, and how badly is he hurt?"
"He is not hurt seriously at all," the physician replied. "The bullet went through the fleshy part of his left arm. It was a clean wound, and he will be around again in no time."
He walked to d.i.c.ky"s bed, bent over him, listened to his breathing, straightened, and came back to me.
"He is doing splendidly," he said, "but you are not. You are on the point of collapse from what you have undergone tonight. You must lie down at once. If there is no one else to take care of you, I must do it."
I felt as if I could not bear to answer him, even to raise my eyes to meet his. I do not know how long the intense silence would have continued. Just as I felt that I could not bear the situation any longer, Lillian Underwood came into the room, bringing with her, as she always does, an atmosphere of cheerful sanity.
"What is the matter?" she asked. Her tone was low and guarded, but in it there was a note of alarm, and the same anxiety shown from her eyes as she came swiftly toward me.
"Mrs. Graham is in danger of a nervous collapse if she does not have rest and quiet soon," Dr. Pett.i.t returned gravely. "Will you see that she is put to bed at once? Mr. Graham will do very well for a while alone, although when you have made Mrs. Graham comfortable, I wish you would come back and sit with him."
Lillian put her strong arms around me and led me through the door into the outer hall.
"But who is with Miss Draper?" I protested faintly, as we started down the stairs toward the first floor.
"Her sister and one of the best trained nurses in the city," Lillian responded. "Besides, Dr. Pett.i.t will go immediately back to her room."
"But d.i.c.ky, there is no one with d.i.c.ky," I said, struggling feebly in an attempt to go back up the stairs again.
"Don"t be childish, Madge." The words, the tone, were impatient, the first I had ever heard from Lillian toward me. But I mentally acknowledged their justice and braced myself to be more sensible, as she guided me to her room, and helped me into bed.
I found her sitting by my bedside when I opened my eyes. Through the lowered curtains I caught a ray of sunlight, and knew that it was broad day.
"d.i.c.ky?" I asked wildly, staring up from my pillows.
Lillian put me back again with a firm hand.
"Lie still," she said gently. "d.i.c.ky is fine, and when you have eaten the breakfast Betty has prepared and which Katie is bringing you, you may go upstairs and take care of him all day."
"But it is daylight," I protested. "I must have slept all night. And you? Have you slept at all?"
"Don"t bother about me," she returned lightly. "I shall have a good long nap as soon as you are ready to take care of d.i.c.ky."
"But I meant to sleep only two or three hours. I don"t see how I ever could have slept straight through the night."
I really felt near to tears with chagrin that I should have left d.i.c.ky to the care of any one else while I soundly slept the night through.
Lillian looked at me keenly, then smiled.
"Can"t you guess?" she asked significantly.
"You mean you put something in the mulled wine to make me sleep?"
"Of course. You have been through enough for any one woman. d.i.c.ky was in no danger, and I had no desire to have you ill on my hands."
I flushed a bit resentfully. I was not quite sure that I liked her high-handed way of disposing of me as if I were a child. Then as I felt her keen eyes upon me I knew that she was reading my thoughts, and I felt mightily ashamed of my childish petulance.
"You must forgive my arbitrary way of doing things," she resumed, a bit formally.
I put out my hand pleadingly. "Don"t, Lillian," I said earnestly.
"I"ll be good, and I do thank you. You know that, don"t you?"
Her face cleared. "Of course, goosie," she answered. "But I must help you dress. Your breakfast will be here in a moment."