Produced by Al Haines [Frontispiece: "YOU ARE SO GENEROUS TO ME" (page 24)] AVERY _By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps_ BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1902 COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY HARPER & BROS. COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS WARD ALL RIGHTS RESERVED _Published October, 1902_ _Avery_ originally appeared as a serial in _Harper's Magazine_ under the title of _His Wife_. AVERY PART I "Oh, Pink! Mother _can't_ lift you.... I would if I could.... Yes, I know I used to-- "Molly, take the baby. Couldn't you amuse him, somehow? Perhaps, if you tried hard, you could keep him still. When he screams so, it seems to hit me--here. It makes it harder to breathe. He cried 'most all night. And if you could contrive to keep Pink, too-- "What is it, Kate? You'll have to manage without me this morning. Pick up anything for luncheon--I don't care. I couldn't eat. You can warm over that mutton for yourselves. We must keep the bills down. They were too large last month. Order a grouse for Mr. Avery. He says he will dine at home to-night-- "There 's the telephone! Somebody answer it. I can't get down, myself.... Is it Mr. Avery? ... Wants me? ... I don't see how I can.... Yes. Hold the wire. I 'll try-- "Did you speak to me, Molly? ... No, I 'm not feeling any worse. It's only getting up the stairs, and ... something that tired me a little. I don't want Dr. Thorne. I can't call the doctor so often. I 'm no worse than ... I sometimes ... am. It's only that I cannot breathe.... Molly! _Molly_! Quick, Molly! The window! Air!" As Molly dashed the window up, Mrs. Avery's head fell back upon the pillows of the lounge. They were blue pillows, and her blanching cheek took a little reflection from the color. But she was not ghastly; she never was. At the lowest limit of her strength she seemed to challenge death with an indomitable vitality. There was a certain surprise in the discovery that so blond a being could have so much of it. She was very fair--blue of eye, yellow of hair, pearly of skin; but all her coloring was warm and rich; when she was well, it was an occupation to admire her ear, her cheek, her throat; and when she was ill her eye conquered. Every delicate trait and feature of her defied her fate, except her mouth; this had begun to take on a pitiful expression. The doctor's blazing eye flashed on it when he was summoned hastily. It had become a symptom to him, and was usually the first one of which he took note.