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Page 74
"What are you doing here, Lloyd?" he cried.
"Hush!" she answered quickly as she came forward; "above all things you
must not sit up; lie down again and don't talk. You are very sick."
"I know, I know," he answered feebly. "I know what it is. But you must
leave here. It's a terrible risk every moment you stay in this room. I
want you to go. You understand--at once! Call the doctor. Don't come
near the bed," he went on excitedly, struggling to keep himself from
sinking back upon the pillows. His breath was coming quick; his eyes
were flashing. All the poor, shattered senses were aroused and quivering
with excitement and dread.
"It will kill you to stay here," he continued, almost breathless. "Out
of this room!" he commanded. "Out of this house! It is mine now; I'm the
master here--do you understand? Don't!" he exclaimed as Lloyd put her
hands upon his shoulders to force him to lie down again.
"Don't, don't touch me! Stand away from me!"
He tried to draw back from her in the bed. Then suddenly he made a great
effort to rise, resisting her efforts.
"I shall put you out, then," he declared, struggling against Lloyd's
clasp upon his shoulders, catching at her wrists. His excitement was so
intense, his fervour so great that it could almost be said he touched
the edge of his delirium again.
"Do you hear, do you hear? Out of this room!"
"No," said Lloyd calmly; "you must be quiet; you must try to go to
sleep. This time you cannot make me leave."
He caught her by one arm, and, bracing himself with the other against
the headboard of the bed, thrust her back from him with all his might.
"Keep away from me, I tell you; keep back! You shall do as I say! I have
always carried my point, and I shall not fail now. Believe me, I shall
not. You--you--" he panted as he struggled with her, ashamed of his
weakness, humiliated beyond words that she should know it. "I--you
shall--you will compel me to use force. Don't let it come to that."
Calmly Lloyd took both his wrists in the strong, quiet clasp of one
palm, and while she supported his shoulders with her other arm, laid him
down among the pillows again as though he had been a child.
"I'm--I'm a bit weak and trembly just now," he admitted, panting with
his exertion; "but, Lloyd, listen. I know how you must dislike me now,
but will you please go--go, go at once!"
"No."
What a strange spinning of the wheel of fate was here! In so short a
time had their mutual positions been reversed. Now it was she who was
strong and he who was weak. It was she who conquered and he who was
subdued. It was she who triumphed and he who was humiliated. It was he
who implored and she who denied. It was her will and no longer his that
must issue victorious from the struggle.
And how complete now was Bennett's defeat! The very contingency he had
fought so desperately to avert and for which he had sacrificed
Ferriss--Lloyd's care of so perilous a disease--behold! the mysterious
turn of the wheel had brought it about, and now he was powerless to
resist.
"Oh!" he cried, "have I not enough upon my mind already--Ferriss and his
death? Are you going to make me imperil your life too, and after I have
tried so hard? You must not stay here."
"I shall stay," she answered.
"I order you to go. This is my house. Send the doctor here. Where's
Adler?" Suddenly he fainted.
An hour or two later, in the gray of the morning, at a time when Bennett
was sleeping quietly under the influence of opiates, Lloyd found herself
sitting at the window in front of the small table there, her head
resting on her hand, thoughtful, absorbed, and watching with but
half-seeing eyes the dawn growing pink over the tops of the apple-trees
in the orchard near by.
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