Her Last Stake, Chapters I-V [pp. 815-839]

HER LA,4ST STAKE.
to review the circumstances in her mind, and to wonder whether
she might venture to undertake a second case which, being so
near her former patient, would enable her to give an occasional
helping hand or word of comfort to the silent, lonely woman,
about whom there hung an air of mystery and sorrow.
"Who is the new sufferer?" asked she, after a pause.
"A young gentleman who, with his bride, is here on their
wedding tour," was the reply. "The lady is not strong enough
to nurse him alone, and the present epidemic of influenza has
taken away all the nurses. I should be very glad if you would
stay, since you are already familiar with the situation, and do
not fear infection."
So the end of it was that Sister Gabrielle found herself
transferred to the opposite room-a large, sunny south one,
under strict injunctions not to divulge the nature of the
illness which she had lately tended, as well as to take every
precaution to isolate and disinfect the sick-room. Her patient,
a tall, fair young man, of some five-and-twenty years, seemed
much less seriously affected than was the case with Miss Falconer, and had the advantage of every appliance and comfort
that money-and the drugs from a fashionable English pharmacy-could bestow. The room was shut in by carbolized
sheets; one leading to the corridor, and one to the bedroom
adjoining where his young wife remained, Sister Gabrielle whispering bulletins from time to time of his progress.
Every morning about nine o'clock-before entering upon his
usual round of visits-the doctor, one of the fashionable English physicians of the place, would make his appearance by the
bedside, and, cautiously pulling up his sleeve, touch with two
timid fingers the sick man's pulse.
"Fever slackening? Ah, yes! That is right! Tongue,
please?" and tiptoeing as far as possible from the reach of in fected breath, he would cast a hasty glance at that member.
"Now, nurse, the carbolic!" And a vigorous application of
carbolic soap to his hands would follow before with nervous
haste he nodded farewell to his patient, and retired outside to
continue his directions in the corridor. "Open the window,
please, there! Ah! everything is going on well, I think, nurse?"
"Quite well, yes."
"We can do no better than continue present treatment-er
-trust to nature to-er-restore vitality. (I beg your pardon,
nurse, but will you keep on the other side of the current of air,
letting it pass from me to you, do you see?')
827
1894.]