"It is best as it is," said I, "and you could not have reasoned her out of it. It was inevitable—after the rest. Take this certificate too; you will need both."
When all was safely over, as we drove home from the new graves two days later, Barker said: "Is this the solution?"
I did not reply.
Presently he said: "To the dead, who cannot suffer, we can be kind and shield them even from themselves. Is there no way to help the living? A few hundred dollars, two short years ago, would have saved all this, and there was no way for her to get it. She knew it all then, and there was no help!"
"Why did she not, in such a case as that, push back her pride and go to some one? There must be thousands who would have gladly responded to such a call as that," I argued.
He buried his face in his hands for a moment and shuddered. At last he said: "She did—she went to three good men, men who had known, been friendly with, admired her and her husband. Two of them are worth their millions, the other one is rich. She only asked to borrow, and promised to repay it herself if she had to live and work after he were dead to do it!"
He paused.
"You do not mean to tell me that they refused—and they old friends and rich?" I asked, amazed.
"I mean to say just this: they one and all made some excuse; they did not let her have it."
"She told them what the doctors said, and of her fears?"