"Why do you talk like that? Why do you try to deceive us? My father will never get better. You know perfectly well that it is hopeless!" Esmeralda's voice sounded clear and cold as falling water; her lips did not tremble, she looked the doctor full in the face with hard, defiant eyes. "I have seen other accidents before this, and know what it means. It is useless to pretend. He has no pain because his spine is too much injured. If he suffered, there might be some hope; as it is, there is none. He will lie there days, weeks, months, whichever it may be, but he will never move out of that room. He is dead already, my father, the father I love, and it will be cruel and wicked of you if you try to keep him alive!" "Joan, Joan! Oh, darling, don't! Think what you are saying!" Tender-hearted Bridgie burst into tears, but Esmeralda would not be restrained. She turned to her sister ablaze with righteous anger. "What! You too? Would you keep him here, existing--merely existing-- not able to do anything--he who has been so active all his life! It's cruel, I tell you--cruel and selfish! You ought not even to wish such a thing!" "My child, the issues of life and death are not in our hands!" The voice of the old man sounded solemn and deep after the girl's heated accents, and she caught her breath as she listened. "It is not for you to decide what is best. If your father lingers in helplessness, it will be for some wise purpose, and you will see that it will be less trying than you expect. Nature herself will work in his favour, for, when paralysis comes, on the brain is mercifully deadened against the worst. He will not suffer, and in all probability he will be patient and resigned. Is not that something for which to be thankful?" Bridgie covered her face with a low, heart-broken cry, for the doctor's silent assent to Esmeralda's verdict--the undisguised conviction that the case was hopeless--came to her with a shock of surprise before which her courage wavered. "Mother dead--father dead! All those children alone in the world, and no money for them, and only me--only me--" Her heart swelled with a great wave of protecting love; she held out her arms and cried brokenly, "Esmeralda, come--come to me. Darling, if we are to be alone, we must help each other, we must love each other more! Oh, Esmeralda, be brave, for I am frightened--I can't do everything alone!" And at that Esmeralda gave a great cry and rushed across the room, and the old doctor groped his way downstairs, leaving the sisters sobbing in each other's arms. CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. THE SENTENCE.