After hours of anxious watching he could not but own to himself that no progress was made, and that the crisis must be awaited with dread. Should he tell her? Dared he? In front of him lay the probably dying little creature that was first in her life—before himself, before anything. Should she perish, there would be no barrier in the world between them; Mrs Cameron would have no duty but to herself!
A warm flush underlay his features—not the flush of pride or of satisfaction; it was the dye of shame for thoughts which placed himself and his egoistic desires before the life of the innocent being whose fate seemed to lie in his hands. It lasted not a moment, for he rose and left the house with a face quite ashen grey, whence all the light and fire of youth had faded. He was not long absent, for he had secured a passing hansom and paid a doubled fare for doubled speed.
He found Mrs Cameron alone with the child, while the nurse, worn out and weary, dozed in an adjacent room. Little Phœbe, who, earlier in the day, had been restless to a frightful degree, flinging about her waxen, chubby arms distractedly in the effort to gain breath, now lay almost motionless. Her mother, little experienced in any phase of illness, imagined that some slight improvement had taken place, but Ralph Danby knew better. The dull bluish pallor of the hitherto rosy skin; the rapid pulsation and agonised breathing; the feeble, sad croak that could not develop force enough for a cry—all told him there was no time to be lost.
He hastily opened the case for which he had journeyed home, and produced a small silver tube.
Mrs Cameron watched his movements with anxiety.
"What are you going to do?"
She was standing near the crib, midway between it and a table whereon he had deposited the case. As her eyes met his she read, by an extraordinary intuition which comes to most of us when reason fails, that he purposed some extreme course of action.
"What are you going to do?" she reiterated, somewhat sharply.
"I must give our little patient relief—instant relief—by means of this," he answered, hastily. She seemed to be wasting time with questions when every moment was precious. Still she stood motionless in front of him.
"How?" she persisted, in a voice so hollow that he could scarcely recognise it.