"It was so like Steve,—to realize but one point, their danger," Alice continued with a proud smile. And Isabelle could see the dull, large-framed man, his head slightly bent, plodding forward in the stream of home-goers on the pavement, suddenly lift his head, and without a moment's hesitation step out into the path of danger….
When Isabelle and John left the house late in the evening, he said gravely,
"The doctors don't think there is much chance for him."
"He will die!" Isabelle gasped, thinking of Alice, who had smiled at them cheerily when they went out of the door.
"Perhaps worse than that,—complete paralysis,—the lower limbs are paralyzed now."
"How perfectly awful!"
"I think he knew me. He grasped my hand so hard it hurt, and I could make out my name. But I couldn't understand what he was trying to say."
"Do you suppose it could be the mortgage?"
"Very likely. I must attend to that matter at once."
They were silent on the way back to the city, each buried in thought. The verdict, which had stirred them so deeply a few hours before, had already sunk into the background of life, overshadowed by this nearer, more human catastrophe.
"I shall have to go on to New York to-morrow, for a few days at least,"
Lane said as they entered the house.