‘I am in love with my profession. I have no other mistress. I desire no other!’
‘Well, you may do all you can to snatch her from the jaws of death,’ said Chicot. ‘Let her have her chance, poor soul. That is only fair. Poor butterfly! Last night the star of a crowded theatre, the delight of every eye; to-night to lie thus, a mere log, living and yet dead. It is hard.’
He walked softly up and down the room, deep in thought.
‘Do you know I implored her to refuse that ascent?’ he said. ‘I had a foreboding that harm would come of it.’
‘You should have forbidden it,’ said the surgeon, with his fingers on the patient’s wrist.
‘Forbidden! You don’t know my wife.’
‘If I had a wife she should obey me.’
‘Ah! that’s a common delusion of bachelors. Wait till you have a wife, and you will tell a different story.’
‘She will do for to-night,’ said Gerard, taking up his hat, yet lingering for one long scrutiny of the white, expressionless face on the pillow. ‘Mrs. Mason knows all she has to do; I will be here at six to-morrow morning.’
‘At six! You are an early riser.’