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Page 48
Clemency obeyed like a child. She kissed James, took a candle, and went
upstairs.
James went into his own room, but he did not undress or go to bed.
Instead, he sat at the window facing the street and stared into the
darkness, watching for Doctor Gordon's return. He sat there for nearly
two hours, then he heard wheels, and saw the dark mass of the team and
wagon lumber into sight. He ran through the house, and was in the drive
with a lantern when the team entered. "Have you been waiting for us,
Elliot?" called Doctor Gordon's tired voice.
"Yes, I thought I would."
"I stayed until I was sure he was comfortable," said Gordon. He
clambered over the wheel of the wagon like an old man. When he was in
the office with James, and the lamp was lit, he sank into a chair, and
looked at the younger man with an expression almost of despair.
"He is not going to die of it?" asked James hesitatingly.
"No," cried Gordon, "he shall not!" He looked up with sudden, fierce
resolution and alertness. "Why should he die?" he demanded. "He is far
from being old or feeble. His vitals are not touched. Why on earth
should you think he would die?"
"I see no reason," James replied hastily, "only--"
"Only what, for God's sake?"
"I thought you looked discouraged."
"Well, I am, and tired of the world, but this man is going to live. See
here, boy, suppose you see if there is any hot water in the kitchen, and
we'll have something to drink, then we will go to bed, and God grant we
don't have a night call."
After Gordon had drank his face lightened somewhat, still he looked
years older than he had done at dinner time, with that awful aging of
the soul, which sometimes comes in an instant. When finally he went
upstairs James noticed how feebly he moved. It was on his tongue's end
to offer to assist him, but he did not dare.
The next morning, before James was up, he heard the rapid trot of a
horse on the drive, and wondered if Doctor Gordon had had a call so
early. When the breakfast-bell rang only Clemency was at the table. The
maid had returned in season to get breakfast, and was waiting with a
severely interrogative face.
She had noticed blood on the frozen surface of the drive and had stood
surveying it before she entered. She had asked Clemency if anything had
happened, and the girl had told her that a man had fallen near the
office door on the preceding evening and been injured, and Doctor Gordon
had taken him home.
"What's the man's name?" Emma had inquired sharply.
"I don't know," said Clemency, and indeed she did not know, but there
was something secretive in her manner. Emma set her mouth hard and
tossed her head. Curiosity was almost a lust with her. She was always
enraged when it was excited and not gratified.
When James entered, she glanced severely at him and then at Clemency, as
she passed the muffins. She suspected something between them, and she
was baffled there.
"Has Doctor Gordon gone out?" James asked.
"Yes, he went right out as soon as he got up. Just had a cup of coffee;
wouldn't wait for breakfast," replied Emma in a nipping tone.
Neither Clemency nor James made any comment. Both knew where he had
gone, and Emma, seeing that they both knew, grew more hostile than
ever. Her manner of serving the beefsteak was fairly warlike.
After breakfast Aaron told James of some parting instructions which
Gordon had left with him. He had the team harnessed, and was to take
James to visit certain patients.
James went off on a long drive across the country, calling on his way at
the scattered houses of the patients. He did not return until noon, just
before the luncheon-bell rang. Entering by the office door he found
Gordon sitting before the hearth-fire, smoking, and staring gloomily at
the leaping flames. He looked up when James entered, said good morning
in an abstracted fashion, and asked some questions about the patients
whom he had visited. James hesitated about inquiring for the man who had
been injured the night before, but finally he did so. The dog had sprung
up to greet him, and between his pats on the white head and commands of
"Down, sir, down!" he asked as casually as he could if Gordon had seen
his patient who had fallen in the drive the night before, and how he
was. Gordon turned upon James a face of such fierce misery that the
younger man fairly recoiled. "He isn't going to die?" he cried.
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