Postpone your
operation. Ten minutes, or even an hour, can be of no consequence.
But life or death may depend on your seeing my wife at once. Come,
doctor! Come, for God's sake!"
Doctor Hillhouse looked at his watch again, stood in a bewildered,
uncertain way for a few moments, and then turned quickly toward the
door and went out, Mr. Ridley following.
"Get in," he said, waving his hand in the direction of his carriage,
which still remained in front of his office. Mr. Ridley obeyed.
Doctor Hillhouse gave the driver a hurried direction, and sprang in
after him. They rode in silence for the whole distance to Mr.
Ridley's dwelling.
One glance at the face of the sick woman was enough to show Doctor
Hillhouse that she was beyond the reach of professional skill. Her
disease, as he had before seen, had taken on its worst form, and was
running its fatal course with a malignant impetuosity it was
impossible to arrest. The wild fever of anxiety occasioned by her
husband's absence during that dreadful night, the cold to which, in
her delirium of fear, she had exposed herself, the great shock her
delicate organism had sustained at a time when even the slightest
disturbance might lead to serious consequences,--all these causes
combined had so broken down her vitality and poisoned her blood that
nature had no force strong enough to rally against the enemies of
her life.
A groan that sounded like a wail of desperation broke from Mr.
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