"We were obliged to remove him from the ward at noon to-day. We prefer not to allow deaths in the general rooms if we can avoid it.—Then too, early this evening, the man was suddenly paid for."
"Paid for!—By whom?"
"A lady. We do not know the name. She refused to give it, and did not ask to see the patient; but she left a considerable sum for him."
"Why did you not send for me sooner?"
"He never mentioned your Excellency's name till this afternoon. And of course we did not dream that you—you knew him. He has been conscious only at intervals since the hemorrhage yesterday; and he is also under the influence of opiates."
"He is dying of—what?"
"Galloping consumption; and—" The man hesitated.
"What?"
"Well, it is a complicated case. We think there must have been a touch of delirium tremens just before he was brought in—a week ago. Alcohol, you see, is the best thing we know for consumption. If the case hadn't been aggravated by privation—hunger, exposure, want,—we might possibly have saved him, at least for the time. But I assure your Excellency that everything has been done—"
"You think it absolutely impossible to save him now—if no expense is spared? I give you carte-blanche—"