"That is the way she acts to every one who takes her hand," said Laura. "I don't know what it means."
"It means," said Harry, "that she is living over again that awful moment when I asked which should loose her hold on me, herself or mother. It was with precisely that manner that she spurned me, as it were."
"We must avoid taking her hand, if that is the case; and I do not doubt that it is," said the doctor. "What nobility of character she has shown! I never met with so interesting a case. But it is obscure. I should be glad to call in some more experienced man to my aid. Have I your permission to do so?"
"Certainly," said Harry. "Call half a dozen, if necessary. This young lady, to all intents and purposes, gave up a life full of promise to save our mother's; we owe her every tender care, and mean to give it."
"I think she must also have two attendants, so as never to be left alone a moment."
Laura looked at him inquiringly.
"As a precaution," he replied. "There is no knowing what the next phase of the disease may be. She might attempt to injure herself. I should like this pair of scissors removed from the room," he added, taking up a pair that lay within reach.
"How strange and dreadful it all is," said Laura. "If you could have seen her in her days of health, when she never wasted a minute, and contrast it with this listlessness and idleness! O, it all seems so hard! We had been such a happy family; and now everything is changed."
The doctor was silent; he was young and did not know what to say.