"I asked you," said Helen, "what is transfusion of blood?"
"It consists," replied the doctor, "in pa.s.sing into the exhausted veins of a sick man enough warm, living blood to give him back, if only for a moment, life, speech, and consciousness. I have never performed the operation, but have seen it once or twice in hospitals."
"So have I," said Benedict, "I have always been interested in strange things, so I attended Majendie"s lectures, and I have always seen the experiment succeed when the blood infused belonged to an animal of the same species."
"Well," said the doctor, "I will go and try to find a man willing to sell us some twenty or thirty ounces of his blood."
"Doctor," said Benedict, throwing off his coat, "I do not sell my blood to my friends, but I give it. Your man is here."
At these words Helen uttered a cry, flung herself violently between Benedict and the doctor, and proudly holding out her bare arm to the surgeon, said to Benedict:
"You have done enough for him already. If human blood is to pa.s.s from another into the veins of my beloved Karl it shall be mine; it is my right."
Benedict fell on his knees before her and kissed the hem of her skirt.
The less impressionable doctor merely said:
"Very well! We will try. Give the patient a spoonful of some cordial. I will go home and get the instruments."
CHAPTER x.x.xV
THE MARRIAGE _IN EXTREMIS_
The doctor rushed from the room as rapidly as his professional dignity would allow.
During his absence Helen slipped a spoonful of a cordial between Karl"s lips while Benedict rang the bell. Hans appeared.
"Go and fetch a priest," said Helen.
"Is it for extreme unction?" Hans ventured to ask.
"For a marriage," answered Helen.
Five minutes later the doctor returned with his apparatus, and asked Benedict to ring for a servant.
A maid came.
"Some warm water in a deep vessel," said the doctor, "and a thermometer if there is one in the house."
She came back with the required articles.
The doctor took a bandage from his pocket and rolled it round the wounded man"s left arm, the right arm being injured. After a few moments the vein swelled, proving thereby that the blood was not all exhausted, and that circulation still continued, although feebly. The doctor then turned to Helen.
"Are you ready?" he enquired.
"Yes," said Helen, "but make haste. Oh, G.o.d, if he should die!"
The doctor compressed her arm with a bandage, placed the apparatus upon the bed so as to bring it close to the patient, and put it into water heated to 35 degrees centigrade, so that the blood should not have time to cool in pa.s.sing from one arm to the other. He placed one end of the syringe against Karl"s arm and almost simultaneously p.r.i.c.ked Helen"s so that her blood spurted into the vessel. When he judged that there were some 120 to 130 grammes he signed to Benedict to staunch Helen"s bleeding with his thumb, and making a longitudinal cut in the vein of Karl"s arm he slipped in the point of the syringe, taking great care that no air-bubble should get in with the blood. While the operation, which lasted about ten minutes, was going on, a slight sound was heard at the door. It was the priest coming in, accompanied by Emma, Madame von Beling, and all the servants. Helen turned, saw them at the door, and signed to them to come in. At the same moment Benedict pressed her arm; Karl had just quivered, a sort of shudder ran through his whole body.
"Ah!" sighed Helen, folding her hands, "thank G.o.d! It is my blood reaching his heart!"
Benedict had ready a piece of court-plaster, which he pressed upon the open vein and held it closed.
The priest approached; he was a Roman Catholic who had been Helen"s director from her childhood up.
"You sent for me, my child?" he asked.
"Yes," answered Helen; "I desire, if my grandmother and elder sister will allow, to marry this gentleman, who, with G.o.d"s help, will soon open his eyes and recover his senses. Only, there is no time to lose, for the swoon may return."
And, as though Karl had but awaited this moment to revive, he opened his eyes, looked tenderly at Helen and said, in a weak, but intelligible voice:
"In the depth of my swoon, I heard everything; you are an angel, Helen, and I join with you in asking permission of your mother and sister that I may leave you my name."
Benedict and the doctor looked at each other amazed at the over-excitement which for the moment restored sight to the dying man"s eyes and speech to his lips. The priest drew near to him.
"Louis Karl von Freyberg, do you declare, acknowledge, and swear, before G.o.d and in the face of the holy Church, that you now take as your wife and lawful spouse, Helen de Chandroz, here present?"
"Yes."
"You promise and vow to be true to her in all things as a faithful husband should to his wife according to the commandments of G.o.d?"
Karl smiled sadly at this admonition of the Church; meant for people who expect to live long and to have time for breaking their solemn vow.
"Yes," said he, "and in witness of it, here is my mother"s wedding-ring, which, sacred already, will become the more sacred by pa.s.sing through your hands."
"And you, Helen de Chandroz, do you consent, acknowledge, and swear, before G.o.d and the holy Church, that you take for your husband and lawful spouse, Louis Karl von Freyberg, here present?"
"Oh, yes, yes, father," exclaimed the girl.
In place of Karl, who was too weak to speak, the priest added:
"Take this token of the marriage vows exchanged between you."
As he spoke he placed upon Helen"s finger the ring given him by Karl.
"I give you this ring as a sign of the marriage that you have contracted."
The priest made the sign of the cross upon the bride"s hand, saying in a low voice:
"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen!"
Stretching out his right hand towards the pair, he added, aloud:
"May the G.o.d of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob join you together and bestow His blessing upon you. I unite you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen!"
"Father," said Karl to the priest, "if you will now add to the prayers that you have just uttered for the husband the absolution for the dying, I shall have nothing more to ask of you."