aunt jane bent her head and listened to the heavy breathing. then she spoke softly to the nurse in charge, who listened obediently and went away. it was not an unusual thing for aunt jane to assume control of a case at any moment. perhaps she was most likely to do this about three or four o'clock in the morning when all the hospital was asleep and a chill had crept into the air. the nurse in charge of a critical case would look up to find aunt jane standing beside her, fresh from a cold bath, with a smile on her big, restful face and a whispered command on her lips that sent the tired nurse to bed with a clear conscience.
the patients that aunt jane assumed in this peremptory fashion always recovered. perhaps they would have recovered in any case. this is one of the things that no one knows. it may be noted, however, in passing, that the patients themselves as they came into the new day, holding fast to aunt[pg 23] jane's hand, cherished a belief that had it not been for that firm, plump hand, the new day would not have dawned for them.... they had no strength and no will of their own. but through the cold and the darkness, something held them; and when the spirit came creeping back with the morning, the first thing that their eyes rested on was aunt jane's face.
the woman's eyes opened suddenly. they looked for a moment, dull and unseeing, into aunt jane's. then they fell shut. aunt jane's fingers noted the pulse and passed once or twice across the high, fretted brow. slowly a look of sleep passed over the face and the strained lines relaxed. aunt jane, watching it, gave a nod of satisfaction. out in the orchard the robin sang his twilight song, slow and cool and liquid, with long pauses between, and the dusk crept into the white room, touching it.
aunt jane sat passive, waiting, the eyes under her white cap glowing with a still, deep look. all the threads of life and death in the hospital gathered up and centred in the quiet figure sitting there. not a pulse[pg 24] in the great building beat, or flickered and went out, that aunt jane did not know it. but she sat waiting while the twilight deepened, a look of restfulness in her big face. now and then she crooned to herself, half humming the lines of some hymn and falling silent again, watching the sleeper's breath.
the night nurse paused outside the door, and a little rush of gaslight flickered in. aunt jane rose and closed the door and shifted a screen noiselessly to the foot of the bed. the long night had settled down for its sleep. and edith dalton's soul was keeping watch with death. slowly it sank back into the grim hold ... only a spark left, with aunt jane keeping guard over it.... so the night passed and the day, and another night and another day ... and the third day dawned. edith dalton would have said, as the spark glowed higher and blazed a little and lighted her soul, and her eyes rested on aunt jane's face, that the figure sitting there had not left her side for three days. down through the deepest waters, where death lulled her and heaven waited, she had felt a touch on[pg 25] her soul, holding her, drawing her steadily back to life; and now she opened her eyes and they rested on aunt jane's face and smiled a little. then the lids fluttered together again and sleep came to the face, natural and sweet.
aunt jane's eyes grew dark beneath the white cap. she touched a bell and gave the case over to the day nurse that came. "she will be all right now," she said. she spoke in the low, even voice that was not a whisper and not a tone. "give her plenty of water. she has been very thirsty. but there is no fever. don't call me unless there is a change.... then send at once." she departed on her rounds.
no one would have guessed, as the fresh, stout figure moved in and out among the wards, that she had not slept for two nights. there was a tradition that aunt jane never slept and that she was never tired. dr. carmon laughed at the tradition and said that aunt jane slept as much as any one, more than most people, in fact, only she did it with her eyes open—that it was only a superstition that made people think they[pg 26] must shut their eyes to sleep. the hindoos had a trick worth two of that. aunt jane knew the trick, and she might tell other folks if she would, and save the world a lot of trouble.
but aunt jane only shook her head, and smiled, and went her way. and when the fight with death came, she went with each one down into that other world, the world of sleep and faith and unconscious power, on the border-land of death, where the soul is reborn, and waited there for life. she had no theories about it, and no pride; and if she had now and then a gentle, imperious scorn of theorists and bunglers, it was only the touch of human nature that made the world love her.
