"I'm right here, Charles, beside you." She tried to make her voice cheerful and warm.
"If you want to go, Luella, you'd better go. I don't seem to be enough for you any more."
She denied this soothingly.
"I've thought it over, Luella, and I can't ruin my health on account of you—" Then quickly, and passionately: "Don't go, Luella, for God's sake, don't go away and leave me! Promise me you won't! I'll do anything you say if you won't go."
His humility annoyed her most; he was a reserved man, and she had never guessed at the extent of his devotion before.
"I'm only going for a minute. It's Doctor Moon, your friend, Charles. He came to-day to see how you were, don't you remember? And he wants to talk to me before he goes."
"You'll come back?" he persisted.
"In just a little while. There—lie quiet."
She raised his head and plumped his pillow into freshness. A new trained nurse would arrive to-morrow.
In the living-room Doctor Moon was waiting—his suit more worn and shabby in the afternoon light. She disliked him inordinately, with an illogical conviction that he was in some way to blame for her misfortune, but he was so deeply interested that she couldn't refuse to see him. She hadn't asked him to consult with the specialists, though—a doctor who was so down at the heel....