“Lie still!” she screamed, “I will not. Come here, Herbert. Tell me,—where is my child? Why is Betty not here? Is she dead, too? Tell me, I say!”
“Yes, Minna,” Varian returned, quietly, “I will tell you all I can. I do not know where Betty is, but we’ve no reason to think she is dead——”
“Then why doesn’t she come to me? Why doesn’t Fred come? Oh,—Fred is dead,—isn’t he?”
And then the poor woman went into violent hysterics, now shrieking like a maniac and now moaning piteously, like some hurt animal.
“The first thing to do,” said Doctor Varian, decidedly, “is to get a nurse for Minna.”
“No,” demurred his wife, “not tonight, anyway. I’ll take care of her, and there will be some maid servant who can help me. There was a nice looking waitress among those who went off this afternoon.”
“The servants will surely return as soon as they hear the news,” Varian said, and then he gave all his attention to calming his patient.
Again he placed her under the influence of a powerful opiate, and by the time she was unconscious, the local doctor had come.
Varian went down to find Doctor Merritt examining the body of his brother.
The two medical men met courteously, the local doctor assuming an important air, principally because he considered the other his superior.