But Jim Rosevear was not listening, his thoughts had run before him up the road, to where, at the stone stile, a maid would be waiting. The rest of the world might be concerned with death; but he was young and his concern was with life, more life. When, on the following day, Byron rode over to the hospital, he was told that his wife still breathed; but that an operation had become necessary, an operation which it was scarcely possible she could survive. He found it difficult to understand why it must be. "Why punish ’er so? Wouldn’t it be better to let ’er die quiet than to ’ack ’er about?" The wheel of the van had gone over both legs, crushing together bone and flesh and the surgeon proposed to amputate. The limbs were injured beyond hope of saving; and it was explained that their removal might give the patient a chance. "Do you think then, sir," said the anxious husband, "that she’ll be better if she ’av the operation?" "She may. The condition is critical and unless the operation is performed she might at any moment take a turn for the worse." He was afraid blood-poisoning might set in. "I shouldn’t ’av thought she’d be strong enough to bear it." Dr. Derek’s opinion was that Sabina would probably die on the operating-table and this, without putting it into so many words, he managed to convey. As soon as Byron understood, although the idea of the amputation was curiously repugnant to him, he gave leave for it to be attempted. Sabina had to die, poor soul, and it was hard on her that the doctors should think it necessary to try their experiments on her, should not be able to leave her in possession of her limbs. Still ... theirs the responsibility. Byron was allowed to remain in the hospital till the result of the operation was known. He sat in an austerely furnished waiting-room and, through his mind, coursed dim memories of Sabina, handsome and active, Sabina vaulting the gates and climbing like a boy, Sabina with her free gait and her hearty open-air voice. From the other side of the picture, the Sabina whose mangled limbs were at that moment being cut from her body, he sedulously turned his gaze. That she should be thus mutilated was abhorrent to him. Dr. Derek, his spick-and-span brightness a little dimmed and his eyes tired, came in at last. "She’s still alive, Byron." "I didn’t think she would be, sir." The doctor hummed and hawed. The operation had been long and delicate and he was weary; but he could not let the man take away with him an illusory hope. "We have to reckon," he said gravely, "with the shock to the system." "You don’t think," returned Byron in his deep rumbling bass, "as there’s much chance for ’er then, sir?" "The condition is very serious." "I shall be lost without ’er, even as ’tis—" he stared before him out of the window and the melancholy of his rough, unkempt appearance impressed the other man.