Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE FRUIT OF THE TREE [Illustration: He stood by her in silence, his eyes on the injured man.] THE FRUIT OF THE TREE BY EDITH WHARTON WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALONZO KIMBALL NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS MDCCCCVII COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS [Illustration: mark] ILLUSTRATIONS _He stood by her in silence, his eyes on the injured man_ _Frontispiece_ _"No--I shall have to ask you to take my word for it"_ _Facing p. 82_ _Half-way up the slope they met_ 130 BOOK I THE FRUIT OF THE TREE I IN the surgical ward of the Hope Hospital at Hanaford, a nurse was bending over a young man whose bandaged right hand and arm lay stretched along the bed. His head stirred uneasily, and slipping her arm behind him she effected a professional readjustment of the pillows. "Is that better?" As she leaned over, he lifted his anxious bewildered eyes, deep-sunk under ridges of suffering. "I don't s'pose there's any kind of a show for me, is there?" he asked, pointing with his free hand--the stained seamed hand of the mechanic--to the inert bundle on the quilt. Her only immediate answer was to wipe the dampness from his forehead; then she said: "We'll talk about that to-morrow." "Why not now?" "Because Dr. Disbrow can't tell till the inflammation goes down." "Will it go down by to-morrow?" "It will begin to, if you don't excite yourself and keep up the fever." "Excite myself? I--there's four of 'em at home----" "Well, then there are four reasons for keeping quiet," she rejoined. She did not use, in speaking, the soothing inflection of her trade: she seemed to disdain to cajole or trick the sufferer. Her full young voice kept its cool note of authority, her sympathy revealing itself only in the expert touch of her hands and the constant vigilance of her dark steady eyes. This vigilance softened to pity as the patient turned his head away with a groan. His free left hand continued to travel the sheet, clasping and unclasping itself in contortions of feverish unrest. It was as though all the anguish of his mutilation found expression in that lonely hand, left without work in the world now that its mate was useless. The nurse felt a touch on her shoulder, and rose to face the matron, a sharp-featured woman with a soft intonation. "This is Mr. Amherst, Miss Brent. The assistant manager from the mills. He wishes to see Dillon."