She made no remark when the nurse told her it was Dr. Hildyard’s wish that this gentleman should see her, but meekly submitted, answering Hugh’s questions in a clear though feeble voice. In about twenty minutes Hugh returned to Dr. Hildyard.
“Well?” said the doctor.
Hugh closed the door and came towards him. “I cannot find the slightest physical cause for this extraordinary debility,” he said. Then he was silent.
“And that is all you can say?” asked Dr. Hildyard.
“All—but—something very unscientific.”
Dr. Hildyard uncrossed and recrossed his legs. “Well! but, my dear fellow, it is just your impressions that I want,” he said, almost impatiently. “I can form conclusions for myself. In fact, I want your medical instinct.”
“I—know,” said Hugh, deprecatingly. His eyes had the glaze of intense preoccupation. “Of—course—you—have formed scientific conclusions. I—only seem to—see. And I saw—a peculiarly delicate and sensitive temperament, with a deep, strong ego beneath. The girl has been deeply wounded, so deeply—I am speaking of her mental nature, not of her body—that, if I were you, I should think it cruel to keep her alive.”
They talked in subdued tones for some minutes. They continued the discussion while Dr. Hildyard accompanied Hugh to the hospital gates, which he entered, pledged to the physician to watch the case for the next few days.
The next day he appropriated the dining hour of the hospital staff to his visit to the sick girl. The nurse was reading to her when he entered the room. She was an intelligent, sweet-faced woman, and spoke quite tenderly of her charge when she followed Hugh into the sitting-room, after he had concluded his visit to the patient.
“I cannot understand the poor girl, Mr. Paull,” she said, confidentially. “She seems slowly sinking. The first animation she has shown was to-day, when I was trying to cheer her up a bit by telling her some little family anecdotes. I was just showing her the portrait of a scapegrace brother of mine, who ran away and enlisted, when she gave a start—a wild look at me—and fainted.”