i f6c06dd9cf3fe221 by Unknown (100 books to read in a lifetime .txt) 📗

clothes--what was left of them. Her blouse was torn in shreds, disclosing the weals on her breast and shoulders. The flesh was torn in places, and was now beginning to disco lour His jaw stiffened, even as his heart melted with pity.

"Can you help me, Mrs. Mullen?" he asked, as she came back into the room.

"I'll do whatever I can, doctor," she answered.

"That's good. Then just follow what I say and we'll get along fine....

First get me some boiling water, and then we'll start."

"You've missed your vocation, Mrs. Mullen," said Rodney, some time later.

"You should have been a nurse."

Her homely face flushed at his praise.

"Never had no chance of being anything like that, in my time," she said. "Will I try to get her clothes off, doctor?" she added.

"No, her corsets are loose, so that's all right."

"I'll sit up with her," said Mrs. Mullen.

"I'll just go and settle them next door, and I'll come back. She'd better not be left, had she?"

Rodney turned from washing his hands and picked up the towel and dried them carefully.

"No, she can't be left," he said; 'but I'll be staying, Mrs. Mullen.

"

For a moment she looked her surprise.

Then: "Very well, doctor," she said.

"I'll get you some wood up to keep this fire going."

It was none of her business. She had heard rumours, which she hadn't believed for a minute; but now . well, he was a fine chap. But he was married and Kate was a Catholic, and these things didn't ought to be.

Still, she had a family of her own, and God knew what some of them would come to. Look at her Michael, for instance, going after Betty Farrow, and her a rank Nonconformist. You see, you couldn't tell what'd befall your baims. And with Kate being so bonny and that, it was harder for her. Well, shed keep her mouth shut. Nobody would know owl from her. "I'll bring you up a bite to eat, later on," she said, and went out.

It was dose on two o'clock when Rodney heard the carol singers. At first their voices were distant and thin. They were some streets away, he thought, and he hoped they would come no nearer and disturb Kate.

She was sleeping peacefully, after having had a light draught, and the deathly pallor had gone from her face. He felt he had been sitting there for an eternity; he felt no weariness nor any discomfort from the straight-backed chair. Had the choice lain with him of being whisked away to any place on earth at that moment, he would have elected to stay exactly where he was.

The room had changed since he had last seen it; the floor was now covered with linoleum, a chintz frill camouflaged the wash-hand stand, and a number of books stood upon a chest of drawers. These additions, together with the innovation of a gas mantle, had transformed the appearance of the room from that of stark poverty, which he remembered, and gave it an air of homeliness.

Kate had neither spoken to him nor looked at him, but he knew she was aware of his presence. He sat close to the bed, feeling more at peace than he had been for years.

The carol singers, suddenly giving voice a few doors away, made him start. Strong male and female voices rose to the heavens, crying:

"God rest you merry, gentlemen, Let nothing you dismay ..."

He clicked his tongue with impatience, and was about to rise when Kate said, in a small voice, "It's all right; I like to hear them."

"I thought you were still sleeping," Rodney said softly.

"Kate, look at me. How are you feeling?"

She opened her eyes slowly and looked up at him, as he bent above her, and her answer surprised him.

"At peace," she said.

They stared at each other, in silence. Then she murmured, "Do you believe in prayers being answered?"

Before Rodney could reply, she went on, "No, you don't. You don't believe in God, do you?"

"Don't talk, my dear," he said soothingly, his fingers on her pulse.

"I must talk. Don't stop me. If I don't speak now, I never shall....

Rodney," she whispered his name for the first time.

He caught her hand and carried the palm to his mouth.

"Oh, my love!"

"I prayed to see you before you went to France, and my prayers have been answered."

"Beloved 1' The dropping of her de fences was so unexpected that he felt light headed. He sat down and pulled his chair nearer to her, and traced his lips over her fingers: " Oh, Kate! "

"Nothing can be changed," she whispered, 'only I wanted you to know before you went that I.

I.

"

"Say it, my darling."

He remained still, her hand pressed to his mouth, waiting

"I love you."

Making a little sound like a sigh he laid his face on the pillow beside hers. His cheek couldn't touch her because of the padding around her neck. But she turned her head slightly, and they lay looking at each other in silence.

When she would have spoken he put his fingers on her lips: "Not now, my beloved. Not now. Go to sleep."

He gently stroked her hair, and the delight of touching it was overwhelming.

"You can talk tomorrow and tell me all the things I long to hear....

It's all right," he assured her as a flicker of apprehension came into her eyes, 'nothing is changed; I know that. Sufficient to hear you say you love me. Sufficient for life, my dear. "

As she dropped off to sleep again, he thought of the strangeness of the past twelve hours; most of all, that she had to be beaten almost to death for her prayer to be answered, and that through her suffering he had been saved from himself.

FRANCE

"No, Annie; you're not going. And don't ask