——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, 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 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.