The hardest professional trouble the shrivelled little French doctor had, perhaps, ever encountered, was the sight of the white, woe-stricken young face, turned up to his when Theodora North followed him out of the chamber upon the landing that night, and caught his arm in both her clinging hands.
"He will die now, doctor," she said, in an agonized whisper. "He will die now; I saw it in your face when you let his hand drop."
It would have been a hard-hearted individual who would have told the exact truth in the face of these beautiful, agonized eyes—and the little doctor was anything but hard of heart.
He patted the clinging hands quite affectionately, feeling in secret great apprehension, yet hiding his feelings admirably.
"My little mademoiselle," he said (the tall young creature at his side was almost regal, head and shoulders above him in height). "My dear little Mademoiselle Theodora, this will not do. If you give way, I shall give way too. You must help me—we must help each other, as we have been doing. It is you only who can save him—it is you he calls for. You must hope with me until some day when he awakes to know us, and then I shall show you to him, and say, 'here is the beautiful young mademoiselle who saved you.' And then we shall see, Miss Theodora—then we shall see what a charm those words will work."
But she did not seem to be comforted, as he expected she would be.
"No," she said. "The time will never come when you can say that to him. If he is ever well enough to know me, I must go away, and no one must tell him I have been here."
Monsieur, the doctor, looked at her over his spectacles, sharply.
The pale face at once touched and suggested to him the outline of a little romance—and he had all a Frenchman's sympathy for romance—monsieur, the doctor. It was une grande passion, was it, and this tractable, beautiful young creature was going to make a sacrifice of all her hope of love, upon the altar of stern honor. But he made no comment, only patted her hand again.
"Well, well," he said. "We shall see, mademoiselle, we shall see. Only let us hope."