——on my second visit, i found iris sitting by the little gentleman’s pillow. to my disappointment, the room was darkened. he did not like the light, and would have the shutters kept nearly closed. it was good enough for me;——what business had i to be indulging my curiosity, when i had nothing to do but to exercise such skill as i possessed for the benefit of my patient? there was not much to be said or done in such a case; but i spoke as encouragingly as i could, as i think we are always bound to do. he did not seem to pay any very anxious attention, but the poor girl listened as if her own life and more than her own life were depending on the words i uttered. she followed me out of the room, when i had got through my visit.
how long?——she said.
uncertain. any time; to-day,——next week,——next month,——i answered.——one of those cases where the issue is not doubtful, but may be sudden or slow.
the women of the house were kind, as women always are in trouble. but iris pretended that nobody could spare the time as well as she, and kept her place, hour after hour, until the landlady insisted that she’d be killin’ herself, if she begun at that rate, ’n’ haf to give up, if she didn’t want to be clean beat out in less ’n a week.
at the table we were graver than common. the high chair was set back against the wall, and a gap left between that of the young girl and her nearest neighbor’s on the right. but the next morning, to our great surprise,[67] that good-looking young marylander had very quietly moved his own chair to the vacant place. i thought he was creeping down that way, but i was not prepared for a leap spanning such a tremendous parenthesis of boarders as this change of position included. there was no denying that the youth and maiden were a handsome pair as they sat side by side. but whatever the young girl may have thought of her new neighbor, she never seemed for a moment to forget the poor little friend who had been taken from her side. there are women, and even girls, with whom it is of no use to talk. one might as well reason with a bee as to the form of his cell, or with an oriole as to the construction of his swinging nest, as try to stir these creatures from their own way of doing their own work. it was not a question with iris, whether she was entitled by any special relation or by the fitness of things to play the part of a nurse. she was a wilful creature that must have her way in this matter. and it so proved that it called for much patience and long endurance to carry through the duties, say rather the kind offices, the painful pleasures, that she had chosen as her share in the household where accident had thrown her. she had that genius of ministration which is the special province of certain women, marked even among their helpful sisters by a soft, low voice, a quiet footfall, a light hand, a cheering smile, and a ready self-surrender to the objects of their care, which such trifles as their own food, sleep, or habits of any kind never presume to interfere with.
day after day, and too often through the long watches of the night, she kept her place by the pillow.——that[68] girl will kill herself over me, sir,——said the poor little gentleman to me, one day,——she will kill herself, sir, if you don’t call in all the resources of your art to get me off as soon as may be. i shall wear her out, sir, with sitting in this close chamber and watching when she ought to be sleeping, if you leave me to the care of nature without dosing me.
this was rather strange pleasantry, under the circumstances. but there are certain persons whose existence is so out of parallel with the larger laws in the midst of which it is moving, that life becomes to them as death and death as life.
