Part 1 (2/2)
”Cheer up, Jean,” he added, corow hysteric, whatever happens”
He sat down and put his ar to him and poured her soul out on his breast--would have put up her hand to his cheek and blessed him and worshi+ped him, as a wife does--and would have spared hiiven him the best; refrained from co, and much of his distress for her sake, as this wife could Now, she lay quite still and irresponsive She did not speak, but tried to se, and he flung theup--for he was startled--and held her to the air
”Poor girl!” he said ”Poor Jean! My poor Jean!”
”Oh, don't!” cried Jean For the tenderness, coan to sob,--the cruel sobs that wreck a weakened heart,--and the ht for her life for an hour
When Dr Thorne caer was quite over; as it usually is in such cases before the physician can arrive; but he said roughly,-- ”What have you been doing to her?”
”He has been saving my life,” panted Jean
”Well,” replied Esmerald Thorne, ”he can”
When the two men went downstairs, the doctor said,-- ”Your pardon,--if I wronged you, Avery?” for he was generous in apology for so imperious a man
”Why, yes, doctor,” returned the husband, with a puzzled face, ”I think you did”
Jean lay quietly on the blue lounge Pink and the baby were taken over to Helen's The house was unnaturally still Marshall was co home in the middle of the afternoon to see her--to see her! The sick woain, cherished and happy Care and illness had never occurred Life had not dulled the eyes of love Use had never threatened joy with indifference This word, that deed, such a scene, all were phantasrownin the heavens yet!
His key clicked in the lock, and he ca up the stairs; dashed in, and knelt beside the lounge; then put his arm about her quietly, for he was shocked when he sa she looked His dark, fine face was broken with his feeling Hers quivered as she lifted it to his kiss
”Did you lose the case, poor dear?” she said
”Curse the case!” cried Avery ”What's a case?I ' to stay with you”
Color brushed all over her wan cheek, her brow, her lips
”I was so afraid of guns!” she pleaded ”I always have been!”
”It is one of your weaknesses,” replied the husband, a shade less tenderly
”I know, dear I have so many! Guns--and boats--I am ashamed of myself They 're like snakes The terror is born in me I don't kno to help it You are very patient with er--but when one is ill, one can't--always--help things”
”Never et well, you will feel differently We et you well, now That is all I care for It is all I care for in the world,” he added, warmly and earnestly
She stirred towards him with an expression that would have moved a far more unworthy man than he It was quite unconscious with her, and as instinctive as a law of nature So a flower pleads for light So life asks for nutrition
”Could n't you sit up--if I held you? Try!” he co his head in a boyish way he had: she could not have told how she loved to see it He took her in his arms, and carried her across the rooathered her like a child, and put his cheek to hers, e of their honeymoon, and joyous years She drank them down as if they had been the breath of life
”Doctors don't know!” he cried ”I believe you could get well”
”I know I could,” said Jean
”You will! I say you must You shall!” insisted Marshall Avery, in his passionate, peremptory voice Jean did not reply But she s face Swiftly she saw the rooht A star swam in mid-ether Two floated in it, with bridal eyes Earth was far and forgotten Heaven was close
He was quite devoted to her for a week or two after this; came home early, took her sometimes to drive, madeshe wore, gave her a white silk Spanish shawl, and brought her the latest novels; sent her flowers like a lover, and spent his evenings with her He talked of another ive her time to the invalid But Mrs Avery shook her head They could not afford that
”You are so generous to me, Marshall!I a better, dear--don't you see I am? I have n't felt so well for a year,” she added
”Oh, we 'll have you round again pretty soon,” he said, with that hearty optimism which, one could not have told exactly why, seemed just to miss of the nature of sympathy But Jean's drafts on sympathy had always been scanty It was verywithout what other woht she could It used to be so She was troubled sometimes to find that sickness creates new heavens and a new earth, and that the very virtues of health ain and rend one It was as if one had acquired citizenshi+p in a strange planet, where character and nature change places
It ith a kind of fear that she received her husband's acceleration of tenderness Hoas she to forego it, when the tie to herself that it would--overlook her again? She tried feverishly to get better in a hurry, as if she had been in some Southern climate where she was but a transient tourist She tried so hard, in fact, as sometimes to check the real and remarkable improvement which had now befallen her
One day Mr Avery announced that he had the toothache, and if he were not so driven he would go and see Ar all his work after this; Arood fellow, and they often reat Electric case was up just then, and necessary dentistry was an i lawyer Endurance was a novelty, and Avery grew nervous under it He bore pain neither better nor worse thanAny wife but Jean would have called hied herself froe--she had been a little less well the last few days--and lavished herself, as wo out her own tenderness--a rare wine After all, there are not too enius in syth on that toothache than the other kind of woive her husband if he meets a mortal hurt Avery received this calmly He was used to it To do him justice, he did not kno cross he was He was used to that, too And so was she The baby was ailing, besides, and things went hard The sick woain; and the coy color which had been so hard to win to her lips fled from them unobserved The doctor was not called; Helen Thorne was out of town; and so it happened that no one noticed--for, as we say, Marshall Avery had the toothache
One night he came home late, and as irritable as better iven for it, for the sake of that species of modern toothache in which your dentist neither extracts nor relieves, but devotes his highly developed and unhappy ingenuity to the de a tooth”
”He calls it killing a nerve,” sputtered Avery ”I should call it killing a patient This performance is the Mauser bullet of up-to-date dentistry It explodes all over you-- Oh, do letfor me A man does n't want to be bothered Go and lie down, and look after yourself Where is that hot water? I asked for alcohol--laudanu Can't anybody in this house do anything for me? I don't trouble the out,” said Mrs Avery patiently ”I 'll get everything as fast as I can, dear” She was up and down stairs a good deal; she did not notice, herself, how often And when she got to bed at last, she cried--she could not help it It was so he had said Oh, no matter what! But she did not kno to bear it, for she was so exhausted, and sobs, which were her mortal enemy, overcame her as soon as she was alone
He did not hear her, for the door was shut between their rooms, and he was quite occupied with his Mauser bullet He had fallen into the habit of shutting the door when the second baby was born; he maintained that the boy orse than Pink Pink cried like a lady, but the boy bellowed like a atheriuet up and dress and stir about He opened the door, and said, without cooing to Ar's house I won't stand it another hour I 'll be home presently”
She tried to tell hi, wifely things hose warm, sun-penetrated atmosphere she so enveloped his life that he took theether, for her voice was fainter than usual
”Won't you come in a minute?” she pleaded He did hear that But he did not come
”Oh, I can't stop now,” he returned petulantly ”I 'o to the club afterwards, and play it off at soht”
”Dear?” she called then, in an agitated voice; it was not like hers, and not like her; if he had perceived this--but he perceived nothing ”I don't feel quite well”--she tried to say But he was halfway downstairs These five words wandered after him like the effort of a dumb spirit to coely into his overcoat, turned up the collar over his toothache, slammed the front door, and went
Jean listened to his footfall on the steps, on the sidewalk; the nervous, irritable, uneven sound softened and ceased She was quite awake, and her ood sleeper for a sick person; but that night she found herself too ill for any for increased with an insidious slowness which she had learned to fear as the rew e of the front door seeive a name, for terror's sake As her husband's footsteps passed from the power of her strained ears to overtake the how they would sound when they passed for the last ti under a load of flowers, with the final look of the sky turned compassionately upon her Then she scorned herself--she was the most healthy-minded invalid who ever sur--and thrust out her hands fro defective plates away from her brain
”If he had only co a little ”If he had only coht”-- She did not add: ”He would have seen that I was too ill He would not have left rew more faint There seemed to be smoke in the room The baby stirred in his crib, and Pink, frorew so dense that it see wool She rang the electric bell for Molly, or she thought she did But Molly did not answer, and the nursery door was shut
There was nothing rueso situation whatever presented itself; she did not see herself as a pathetic object; even her husband vanished fro footsteps or returning arhter on his lips or true love in his eyes--she thought of hiency like soreat battle For the lonely wo with mortal peril She had alondered if she would know it from its counterfeits when it really came--there were so many counterfeits! She had asked, as allcontention? A short, sharp thrust? Agony? Stupor? Struggle, or cal dra, or even sole resolved itself into the siet her breath
Suddenly this effort ceased She had struggled up against the pillows to call ”Molly! Molly!” when she found that she could not call Molly As if her head had been under water, the function of breathing battled, and surrendered Then there befell her swiftly the most beatific instant that she had ever known
”I a to sleep I did not die, after all” She are of turning her face, as her head dropped back on her pillows, before she sank into ecstasy
The night was fair and cool There was so frost Avery noticed this as he hurried to Dr Ar's The leaves seemed to curl in a sensitive, wos had been hurt before they received their death-stroke
”It is the third of Nove on the sidewalk sharply, and he ran up the long steps with his gloved hand held to his cheek
Physical pain always , who had none too good a temper himself; and the two men sparred a little before the dentist consented to remove the tooth
Avery was surprised to find how short and simple an affair this was