"I happened to be passing," he said to Aaron, "and I thought I would drop in to see how we are getting along." When they came down from the sick-room Aaron observed a graver expression on his face. "It is unfortunate that you have no nurse, Mr. Cohen," he said; "your wife needs constant care and watchfulness." "She will have it, doctor. Is she any better, sir? How is she progressing?" "She is still the same, still the same, no better and no worse." "It is not in her favour, doctor, that she remains the same?" "No, I cannot conscientiously say it is. At this stage a little additional strength would be of great assistance to her. Nature's forces require rallying; but we will hope for the best, Mr. Cohen." "We will, doctor, but will hope avail?" His sad voice struck significantly upon the doctor's ears. "Perhaps not, but it is a consolation." "There are griefs, sir, for which there is no consolation. I cannot wrest my thoughts from the selfish view. There are sorrows that come so close home as to take complete possession of us." "It is human, Mr. Cohen, it is natural; but we must not shut out resignation, fortitude, submission." "Doctor, I implore you to conceal nothing from me. It will be merciful." "What is it you wish to know?" "Tell me exactly how my wife and child are, so that I may be prepared"--his voice faltered--"for the worst." "You do not know, then?" "I fear--but I do not know." "We doctors have frequently hard duties to perform, Mr. Cohen, duties which to others appear cruel. I will speak plainly; it will be best. It is due to your wife's gentle and loving nature that I have not done so before, and I yielded to her imploring solicitations, deeming it likely that you would discover the state of the case from your own powers of observation. Mr. Cohen, I have rarely had so sad and affecting an experience as I find here. It would be wrong for me to say that your wife is not in danger; she has been in danger for some days past, and it is only an inward moral strength that has supported her through the crisis. Physically she is very weak, spiritually she is very strong. She has still a vital power which, under certain conditions, will be of immense assistance to her, which will enable her--so far as it is in human power to judge--to pull through. You will gather from my words that her safety, nay, her life, depends not so much upon herself as upon others; upon you to some extent, but to a much greater extent upon her babe. It is her deep love for you both that has sustained her, that still sustains her. Were anything to happen to either of you I should fear the gravest results. It would react upon her, and in her delicate state there would be no hope." "I am strong and well bodily, doctor; nothing is likely to happen to me. Her danger, then, lies in our child?"