It is then that Death gathers in his human harvest
most abundantly. It was then that Death and I fought our fight over
the bed, which should have the man who lay on it. I never hesitated
in pursuing the treatment on which I had staked everything. When wine
failed, I tried brandy. When the other stimulants lost their influence,
I doubled the dose. After an interval of suspense--the like of which I
hope to God I shall never feel again--there came a day when the rapidity
of the pulse slightly, but appreciably, diminished; and, better
still, there came also a change in the beat--an unmistakable change to
steadiness and strength. THEN, I knew that I had saved him; and then I
own I broke down. I laid the poor fellow's wasted hand back on the bed,
and burst out crying. An hysterical relief, Mr. Blake--nothing more!
Physiology says, and says truly, that some men are born with female
constitutions--and I am one of them!"
He made that bitterly professional apology for his tears, speaking
quietly and unaffectedly, as he had spoken throughout. His tone and
manner, from beginning to end, showed him to be especially, almost
morbidly, anxious not to set himself up as an object of interest to me.
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