“Shut up my soul in a bottle?” she exclaimed, with eager interest. “But thou wilt not keep it there always, O doctor lady? I should like it for a little while, but not for long.”
“I couldn’t put your soul in a bottle if I wanted it there,” said Georgia, laughing; “but I promise you that I won’t keep you without it longer than I can help.”
“I tell thee thou shalt not use thy vile drugs on the maiden,” declared Khadija stoutly, as Rahah began to get out the necessary implements.
“Then how am I to perform the operation?” asked Georgia.
“I will call two of the slave-women, and they shall hold the child quiet.”
“O doctor lady, thou wilt not let her bring them to hold me down?” entreated Zeynab piteously. “They hurt so dreadfully.”
“Certainly not. I am in charge of this case, Khadija, and I refuse to undertake the operation unless the patient is put under chloroform. If she struggled, frightful harm might be done.”
“At least I shall be here to wake her if I see that thou art taking away her soul.”
“If you do, I shall have to chloroform you too. No, if you stay in the room, you will not move unless I tell you to do anything. Otherwise I must send you away.”
Khadija was vanquished. With a grunt she wrapped her head in her veil, and sat down on the floor at the head of the bed, while Georgia and Rahah proceeded with their preparations, the carved chest in which Zeynab’s best clothes were kept serving as an impromptu operating-table. The poor little patient grew paler and paler as she caught sight of one horror after another, for she insisted on raising herself on her elbow to look at everything, and demanded that Rahah should show her the instruments one by one. Georgia put a stop to this at once, but the child’s terror was already so extreme that nothing but the determination not to allow Khadija to triumph kept her from entreating the doctor lady to postpone the operation. She looked up with a pitiful smile when the chloroform was about to be administered, and seemed almost ready to beg for a respite; but Khadija was leaning forward and scanning her face keenly, on the alert to take advantage of the slightest willingness to yield, and she said with a little gasp—