Phil, who knew only that Helen had stopped to speak with some one, had
no means of knowing who. She was the same to him as any other person
of millions in his silent night, unseen, unheard. His circle of actual
human beings consisted of Helen, or Henriette, as he thought, Bricktop,
the nurses, the specialists, and now his parents and Peter. They were
the visible stars in the darkness. And Helen was taking him back to
his chair now.
"You've heard that Smithers will leave all his fortune to Cousin Phil,
willy-nilly?" said Henriette, following them indoors. "Mother wrote it
from Paris. She had it from Truckleford."
"Only they have not told him," Helen said.
"Why not? I should think that if there were anything that would make
him want to live it would be the thought that he was to have three
millions."
"Mr. Smithers decided not," Helen replied.
"And how has he stood the day?" Henriette asked the stereotyped
question of her sister.
"Very well!" was the answer. "I'm afraid it may have tired and excited
him, though." She was careful not to let him overtax himself; and now,
when he wanted his pad, she added: "I must not let him write much."
If Henriette prolonged her visits it was when Helen was writing him
messages or he was writing to her. The process seemed to fascinate her.
"There is a question I want to ask," Phil wrote. "I have wondered
about it a good deal. Helen never sends me any messages. She has not
even shaken my hand and said hello to her seventeenth cousin. I can't
see her new cartoons, but I remember all of her old ones. Tell me!"
Henriette had been looking over his shoulder as he wrote, Helen
standing to one side till he had finished the first sheet. A number of
times before he had asked where Helen was, and after a strange thrill
that dried her throat she had replied:
"Drawing and in her ward. She inquires about you every day."
It was Henriette who reached for the first sheet this time. When he
had finished the second sheet she passed both to Helen, with a studious
inquiry on her face and without speaking. Then she looked around the
room. It was empty, save for one form asleep on a cot in the far
corner. Helen did not look up. She was motionless, staring at the
sheets. He was hurt because she had never shaken his hand--she who had
no thought except him! And, yes, he had thought of her for herself a
little--a part of his kindness even when he was racked with pain. She
folded the sheets gently, but without the stir of so much as an
eyelash, when Henriette's voice brought her out of her daze.
"The hoax seems complete," said Henriette. "He is wholly convinced
that you are I."
"Yes," said Helen. "You wished it, didn't you, and it has helped
him--yes, he has said that it kept him alive!"
"Kept him alive!" repeated Henriette, in a monotone.
"Yes, you, not I, kept him alive!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account