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Page 37
"Yes, I'm afraid he will be. And you think he will accept Amy's
companionship, after he is walking about, as a part of his medicine?
Shall you insist on her being with him, or is she to wait to be invited
to read to him and walk with him?"
His brows knit in a frown. "You think I'm prescribing something I can't
administer? But I think that he will grow so used to having her with
him, while he actually needs her as a nurse, that, when he gets about and
finds her still here, he will quite naturally fall into the way of
seeking her company."
"Perhaps he will. At any rate, she is very welcome to stay, as long as
you want her for the experiment."
"You are an angel! I realize that I shouldn't have made such an
arrangement without asking your permission. To tell the truth, I'm so
used to--"
He stopped short, with a little ejaculation of dismay.
"I understand, dear," she said quickly. "You are so used to being master
of the house that you forgot the new conditions. It's all right--you are
still master--particularly in everything that has to do with your
profession. And if you can find a cure for poor Dr. Leaver's broken
spirit I shall be as happy as you."
"It's going to make you a lot of trouble,--two guests in the house, for
an indefinite period. You see, I'm just waking up to what I'm asking of
you. It's precisely like my impetuosity to create a situation I can't
retreat from, and then wonder at my own nerve. Will it bother you very
much?"
"It's what we're here for, isn't it?" She smiled at him as he turned and
put both arms around her, kneeling beside her in the shadow of the vines.
"It's certainly what you are here for, and I am your partner, or I'm not
much of a wife."
"Bless you, you darling; you surely are. And such a partner! If Leaver
had one like you--he wouldn't be where he is. But he can't have you,"
he repeated, and held her closer. "I couldn't see you reading to him and
walking with him, and being a friend to him,--I couldn't see it, that's
all, no matter how much good you might do him. Queer--I didn't know that
was in me--that feeling. Macauley calls me a Turk. I guess that's what I
am. It's a primitive sort of instinct, scoffed at in these days when half
the married women are playing with fire in the shape of other women's
husbands. But I hate that sort of thing--have always hated it. I'm a
Turk, all right. Do you mind?"
"No, I don't think I mind," she answered softly. "But I want your perfect
trust, Red."
"You have it, oh, you have it, love. No possible question of that. And
I don't mean that I'm not willing to have Leaver get what he can of
your dearness, as he's bound to feel it, in our home. But this comrade
business, which I feel he's so much in need of,--that's what he can't
have from you. And if he stayed on, and there was no other woman about,
why, quite naturally--"
He stopped. Then, as she was silent, "You won't misunderstand me, little
wife?" he begged. "I've seen so much of the other thing, you know. Can I
be--enough for you?"
"Quite enough, Red."
After a minute he went back to the thing which absorbed him. "I can see
you haven't much confidence in my plan for Amy's helping him?"
She hesitated. "You spoke just now of playing with fire. You don't
feel that in throwing two people so closely together you are risking
something?"
He considered it. "My idea is that Amy will administer her comradeship as
she would her medicines. She is the most conscientious girl alive; she
won't give him a drop too much."
"Not a drop too much for his good, perhaps. But what about hers, dear?
When he is himself Dr. Leaver can be a wonderfully interesting and
compelling man, you know. It would be a pity for her to grow to care for
him, if--I don't suppose it is at all possible to expect him to care
seriously for her,--do you?"
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