Green Hill
January 10
This morning Father was worse. I rushed to the 'phone and tried to get Dr. Mac, but he was out, making his calls. So Dr. Denton came. He sent me from the room, and was with Father a long, long time. When he came out, he called me.
"Your father wishes to see you, Miss Carroll," he said.
"Dr. Denton—" I couldn't say any more. Suddenly he took my two ice-cold hands in his firm, warm grasp.
"Remember," he said, almost sternly, "that I am at your service, always, and at his."
He dropped my hands and turned away.
"I shall be back," he told me, "in the afternoon."
Shaking all over, I laid my hand on the doorknob and prayed, over and over, just "Please, God, help him," and went in.
Father, very white, held out his hands. "Come here," he said. And when I was beside him,
"Mavis," he said, "the thought of leaving you alone—now that I feel certain that I must leave you, is unbearable. I have been talking today with Dr. Denton. He wants to marry you, my dear, and take care of you always, for me. He has been like my own son to me, that boy. He is straight and true and clean. And I think that I could go on my long journey with very few regrets, my Mavis, if I knew that you were in as safe hands as his."