A voice called from the corridor outside, “Miss O’Leary, Doctor Brainard’s waiting.”
Doctor Dempsy gave the hand inside the rubber glove a tight squeeze. “Remember, Leerie, I know you’ll keep the little old lantern burning for me as long as you can, and here’s good luck, whatever happens.”
She went without a word. Peter had become vastly absorbed at the window in watching Hennessy sweeping a gathering of leaves from the curb. When he finally came back to his chair by the bedside he flattered himself that his expression was beatifically cheerful and his voice perfectly steady.
As the day waned a storm gathered, and by nightfall the sanitarium and the surrounding country were in the grip of a full-fledged equinoctial. Doctor Dempsy was put to bed early, and Peter went back to his room in the main building to write himself into a state of temporary forgetfulness, if he could. He had tinkered with his pen, sharpened half a dozen pencils, and mussed up as many sheets of paper when a knock brought him to his feet. Sheila O’Leary stood at the door. Her lips were bravely trying to smile away the haggard lines of the face.
Unconsciously Peter’s arms went out to her as he repeated that old cry of his in the days when he was a sufferer in the Surgical, “Why—why, it’s Leerie!” and his love seemed to pound through every syllable.
For the flash of a second the eyes of the girl leaped to his in answer, but in another flash they seemed to have traveled miles away, looking back at him with the sadness of a lost angel. “Yes, it’s Leerie again—come for help,” she announced, tersely.
“All right.” Peter tried to sound matter-of-fact.
“Don’t ask questions; just do it. Will you?”
Peter nodded.
“You said once if you had to, you could drive through any storm, snow, hail, or rain, that you had ever seen. Yes? Then get your car and take Doctor Brainard out to-night. Take him anywhere, and keep him going till he’s so tired he’s ready to drop. Talk to him, tell him stories, don’t let him talk about himself—or to-morrow. And bring him home when you think he can sleep.”