You must go out of this room and stay out."
I stood up and faced him unflinchingly.
"I cannot, Dr. Pett.i.t," I answered firmly. "I must keep my promise."
"Then I will get your release from that promise at once," he said and strode toward the bed.
I watched him with terrified fascination. Had he gone suddenly mad?
What did he mean to do?
As Dr. Pett.i.t turned from Lillian and me, and strode toward the bed where the sick girl lay, apparently raving in delirium, I called out to him in horror.
"Oh, don"t disturb that delirious, dying girl!"
I made an impetuous step forward to try to stop him when Lillian caught my arm and whirled me into a recess of the alcove.
"You unsuspecting little idiot," she said, giving me a tender little shake that robbed the words of their harshness, "can"t you see that that girl is shamming?"
For a moment I could not comprehend what she meant; then the full truth burst upon me. If what Lillian said were true, if the girl was pretending delirium that she might utter words concerning d.i.c.ky"s infatuation for her which would torture me, then it was more than probable, almost certain, in fact, that there was no word of truth in her pretended delirious mutterings.
d.i.c.ky was not faithless to me, as I had feared during the tortured moments in which I had listened to, the girl"s ravings.
The joy of the sudden revelation almost unnerved me. I believe I would have swooned and fallen had not Lillian caught me.
"Listen," she said in my ear, pinching my arm almost cruelly to arouse me, "listen to what Dr. Pett.i.t is saying, and you"ll see that I am right."
My eyes followed hers to the bed where Dr. Pett.i.t stood gazing down upon the seemingly unconscious girl and speaking in measured, merciless fashion.
"This won"t do, my girl," he was saying, and his tone and manner of address seemed in some subtle fashion to strip all semblance of dignity from the girl and leave her simply a "case" of the doctor"s, of a type only too familiar to him.
"It _won"t_ do," he repeated. "You are simply shamming this delirium, and you are lessening your chances for life every minute you persist in it. I"m sorry to be hard on you, but I"m going to give you an ultimatum right now. Either you will release Mrs. Graham from her promise at once and quit this nonsense, or I shall call an officer, report the truth of this occurrence, and you will be arrested not only upon a charge of attempted suicide, but of attempted murder.
"Of course, you will then be removed to the jail hospital, where I am afraid you may not enjoy the skilful care you are getting now. And, if you live, the after effects of these charges will be exceedingly unpleasant for you."
My heart almost stopped beating as I listened to the physician"s relentless words.
Suppose Dr. Pett.i.t was mistaken and the girl should be really delirious, after all. But just as I had reached the point of torturing doubt hardly to be borne, the girl stopped her delirious muttering, opened her eyes and looted steadily up at the physician.
"You devil," she said, at last, with quiet malignity. "You"ve called the turn. I throw up my hands."
"I thought so." This was the physician"s only response. He stood quietly waiting while the girl gazed steadily, unwinkingly at him.
"Tell me," she said at last, coolly, "am I going to die?"
"I do not know," the physician returned, as coolly. "You have a slight temperature, and I am afraid infection has developed. But I can tell you that your performance of the last hour or two has not helped your chances any. You must be perfectly quiet and obedient, conserve every bit of strength if you wish to live."
"How about that very chivalric threat you made just now," the girl retorted, sneeringly. "If I live, are you going to have me arrested for this thing?"
"Not if you behave yourself and promise to make no more trouble," the physician replied gravely.
There was another long silence. The girl lay with eyes closed. The physician stood watching her keenly. Presently she opened her eyes again.
"Call Mrs. Graham over here," she said peremptorily.
"What are you going to say to her?" the physician shot back.
"That"s my business and hers," Miss Draper returned, with a flash of her old spirit. "If you want a release from that promise you"d better let her come over here, otherwise I"ll hold her to it."
Disregarding Lillian"s clutch upon my arm I moved swiftly to the side of the bed and looked down into the sick girl"s eyes, brilliant with fever.
"Did you wish to speak to me?" I asked gently.
"Yes," she said abruptly, "I release you from your promise, and you are free to believe or not what I have said during my--delirium."
She emphasized the last word with a little mocking smile. The same smile was on her lips as she added, slowly, sneeringly:
"But you will never know, will you, Madgie dear, just how much of what I said was false and how much true?"
Her eyes held mine a moment longer, and the malignance in their feverish brightness frightened me. Then she closed them wearily.
As I turned away from her bedside I realized that she had prophesied only too truthfully. There would be times in my life when I would believe d.i.c.ky only. But I was also afraid there would be others when her words would come back to me with intensified power to sear and scar.
x.x.x
THE WEEKS THAT FOLLOWED
Grace Draper did not die. Thanks to the a.s.siduous care of Dr. Pett.i.t and the two trained nurses d.i.c.ky had provided she gradually struggled up from the "valley of the shadow of death" in which she had lain to convalescence.
As soon as she was able to travel she went to the home of the relative in the country whom she had visited in the summer. One of the nurses went with her to see that she was settled comfortably, and upon returning reported that she was getting strong fast, and in a month or two more would be her usual self again.
Neither d.i.c.ky nor I had seen her before she left. Indeed, d.i.c.ky appeared to have taken an uncontrollable aversion to the girl since her attempt to kill him and herself and disliked hearing even her name mentioned. As for me, I had a positive dread of ever looking into the girl"s beautiful false face again.
It was Lillian who made all the necessary arrangements both for the girl"s stay in her own home and her transfer to the country.
But between the time of my mother-in-law"s arrival at our house in Marvin and the departure of Grace Draper from Lillian"s home lay an interval of a fortnight in which what we all considered the miraculous happened. My mother-in-law grew to like Lillian Underwood.
For the first three or four days after the ultimatum which I had given her that she should respect our guests if she stayed in our house she was like a sulky child. She kept to her room, affecting fatigue, and demanding her meals be carried up to her by Katie.
Of course Lillian and Harry wanted to go away at once, but d.i.c.ky and I overruled them. I was resolved to see the thing through. I felt that if my mother-in-law did not yield her prejudices at this time she never would, and that I would simply have to go through the same thing again later.
Lillian saw the force of my reasoning and agreed to stay, although I knew that the sensitive delicacy of feeling which she concealed beneath her rough and ready mask made her uncomfortable in a house which held such a disapproving element as my mother-in-law.
Then, one day the little G.o.d of chance took a hand. Harry and d.i.c.ky had gone to the city. It was Katie"s afternoon off, and she and Jim, who had become a regular caller at our kitchen door, had gone away together.
Mother Graham was still sulking in her room, and Lillian was busy in d.i.c.ky"s improvised studio with some drawings and jingles which were a rush order.