“What, my child?”
She smiled upward to his bent face.
“The poor—mustn’t be ashamed of the poor, must they?”
The Doctor only stroked her brow, and presently turned and addressed his professional inquiries to the nurse. He went away. Just outside the door he asked the nurse:—
“Hasn’t her husband been here?”
“Yes,” was the reply, “but she was asleep, and he only stood there at the door and looked in a bit. He trembled,” the unintelligent woman added, for the Doctor seemed waiting to hear more,—“he trembled all over; and that’s all he did, excepting his saying her name over to himself like, over and over, and wiping of his eyes.”
“And nobody told him anything?”
“Oh, not a word, sir!” came the eager answer.
“You didn’t tell him to come and see me?”
The woman gave a start, looked dismayed, and began:—