I roused him, and together we conveyed Thomas to our guest room, the
only decently isolated spot in the building. Then I telephoned for the
doctor, who, I am afraid, had already had a long day. He came, and we
put in a pretty terrible night. It developed afterward that the boy had
brought along with his luggage a bottle of liniment belonging to his
employer. It was made half of alcohol and half of witch hazel; and
Thomas had refreshed his journey with this!
He was in such shape that positively I didn't think we'd pull him
through--and I hoped we wouldn't. If I were a physician, I'd let such
cases gently slip away for the good of society; but you should have seen
Sandy work! That terrible lifesaving instinct of his was aroused, and he
fought with every inch of energy he possessed.
I made black coffee, and helped all I could, but the details were pretty
messy, and I left the two men to deal with him alone and went back to
my room. But I didn't attempt to go to bed; I was afraid they might be
wanting me again. Toward four o'clock Sandy came to my library with
word that the boy was asleep and that Percy had moved up a cot and would
sleep in his room the rest of the night. Poor Sandy looked sort of ashen
and haggard and done with life. As I looked at him, I thought about how
desperately he worked to save others, and never saved himself, and about
that dismal home of his, with never a touch of cheer, and the horrible
tragedy in the background of his life. All the rancor I've been saving
up seemed to vanish, and a wave of sympathy swept over me. I stretched
my hand out to him; he stretched his out to me. And suddenly--I don't
know--something electric happened. In another moment we were in each
other's arms. He loosened my hands, and put me down in the big armchair.
"My God! Sallie, do you think I'm made of iron?" he said and walked out.
I went to sleep in the chair, and when I woke the sun was shining in my
eyes and Jane was standing over me in amazed consternation.
This morning at eleven he came back, looked me coldly in the eye without
so much as the flicker of an eyelash, and told me that Thomas was to
have hot milk every two hours and that the spots in Maggie Peters's
throat must be watched.
Here we are back on our old standing, and positively I don't know but
what I dreamed that one minute in the night!
But it would be a piquant situation, wouldn't it, if Sandy and I
should discover that we were falling in love with each other, he with a
perfectly good wife in the insane asylum and I with an outraged fiance
in Washington? I don't know but what the wisest thing for me to do is to
resign at once and take myself home, where I can placidly settle down
to a few months of embroidering "S McB" on table-cloths, like any other
respectable engaged girl.
I repeat very firmly that this letter isn't for Jervis's consumption.
Tear it into little pieces and scatter them in the Caribbean.
S.
January 3.
Dear Gordon:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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