CHAPTER XIV
THE FIGHT FOR LIFE
The little wife made a brave fight. For a week there was no sign of a breakdown save an unnatural brightness of the eyes that told the story of struggle within. He gave himself to the effort to help her win. He spent but an hour at the Capitol, left a Speaker _pro tem_ in the chair, hurried to his office, gave his orders and by eleven o"clock he was at home, talking, laughing, and planning a day"s work that would interest her and bring back the flush to her pale cheeks.
She had responded to his increasing tenderness and devotion with pathetic eagerness. At the beginning of the second week Doctor Williams gave him hope:
"It looks to me, my boy," he said thoughtfully, "that I"m seeing a miracle.
I think she"s not only going to survive the shock, but, what"s more remarkable, she"s going to recover her health again. The mind"s the source of health and power. We give medicines, of course, but the thought that heals the soul will reach the body. Bah!--the body is the soul anyhow, for all our fine-spun theories, and the mind is only one of the ways through which we reach it----"
"You really think she may be well again?" Norton asked with boyish eagerness.
"Yes, if you can reconcile her mind to this thing, she"ll not only live, she will be born again into a more vigorous life. Why not? The preachers have often called me a G.o.dless rationalist. But I go them one better when they preach the miracle of a second, or spiritual birth. I believe in the possibility of many births for the human soul and the readjustment of these bodies of ours to the new spirits thus born. If you can tide her over the next three weeks without a breakdown, she will get well."
The husband"s eyes flashed:
"If it depends on her mental att.i.tude, I"ll make her live and grow strong.
I"ll give her my body and soul."
"There are just two dangers----"
"What?"
"The first mental--a sudden collapse of the will with which she"s making this fight under a reaction to the memories of our system of educated ignorance, which we call girlish innocence. This may come at a moment when the consciousness of these "ideals" may overwhelm her imagination and cause a collapse----"
"Yes, I understand," he replied thoughtfully. "I"ll guard that."
"The other is the big physical enigma----"
"You mean?"
"The possible reopening of that curious abscess in her throat."
"But the specialist a.s.sured us it would never reappear----"
"Yes, and he knows just as much about it as you or I. It is one of the few cases of its kind so far recorded in the science of medicine. When the baby was born, the drawing of the mother"s neck in pain pressed a bone of the spinal column into the flesh beside the jugular vein. Your specialist never dared to operate for a thorough removal of the trouble for fear he would sever the vein----"
"And if the old wound reopens it will reach the jugular vein?"
"Yes."
"Well--it--won"t happen!" he answered fiercely. "It can"t happen now----"
"I don"t think it will myself, if you can keep at its highest tension the desire to live. That"s the magic thing that works the miracle of life in such cases. It makes food digest, sends red blood to the tips of the slenderest finger and builds up the weak places. Don"t forget this, my boy.
Make her love life, desperately and pa.s.sionately, until the will to live dominates both soul and body."
"I"ll do it," was the firm answer, as he grasped the doctor"s outstretched hand in parting.
He withdrew completely from his political work. A Speaker _pro tem_ presided daily over the deliberations of the House, and an a.s.sistant editor took charge of the paper.
The wife gently urged him to give part of his time to his work again.
"No," he responded firmly and gayly. "The doctor says you have a chance to get well. I"d rather see the roses in your cheeks again than be the President of the United States."
She drew his head down and clung to him with desperate tenderness.
CHAPTER XV
CLEO"S SILENCE
For two weeks the wife held her own and the doctor grew more confident each day. When Norton began to feel sure the big danger was past his mind became alert once more to the existence of Cleo. He began to wonder why she had not made an effort to see or communicate with him.
She had apparently vanished from the face of the earth. In spite of his effort to minimize the importance of this fact, her silence gradually grew in sinister significance. What did it mean? What was her active brain and vital personality up to? That it boded no good to his life and the life of those he loved he couldn"t doubt for a moment. He sent a reporter on a secret mission to Peeler"s house to find if she were there.
He returned in three hours and made his report.
"She"s at Peeler"s, sir," the young man said with a smile.
"You allowed no one to learn the real reason of your visit, as I told you?"
"They never dreamed it. I interviewed old Peeler on the revolution in politics and its effects on the poor whites of the state----"
"You saw her?"
"She seemed to be all over the place at the same time, singing, laughing and perfectly happy."
"Run your interview to-morrow, and keep this visit a profound secret between us."
"Yes, sir."
The reporter tipped his hat and was gone. Why she was apparently happy and contented in surroundings she had grown to loathe was another puzzle.
Through every hour of the day, down in the subconscious part of his mind, he was at work on this surprising fact. The longer he thought of it the less he understood it. That she would ever content herself with the dreary existence of old Peeler"s farm after her experiences in the town and in his home was preposterous.
That she was smiling and happy under such conditions was uncanny, and the picture of her shining teeth and the sound of her deep voice singing as she walked through the cheap, sordid surroundings of that drab farmhouse haunted his mind with strange fear.
She was getting ready to strike him in the dark. Just how the blow would fall he couldn"t guess.
The most obvious thing for her to do would be to carry her story to his political enemies and end his career at a stroke. Yet somehow, for the life of him he couldn"t picture her choosing that method of revenge. She had not left him in a temper. The rage and curses had all been his. She had never for a moment lost her self-control. The last picture that burned into his soul was the curious smile with which she had spoken her parting words:
"But I"ll see you again!"
Beyond a doubt some clean-cut plan of action was in her mind when she uttered that sentence. The one question now was--"what did she mean?"