XVII
At length one day I was called up at dawn and went over to take her place
once more, and when after several hours had passed I was still with him,
Fontenette said, while I bent down,
"I have the fear thad's going to go hahd with my wife, being of the
Nawth."
"Why, what's going to go hard, old fellow?"
"The feveh. My dear frien', don't I know tha'z the only thing would keep
heh f'om me thad long?"
"Still, you don't know her case will be a hard one; it may be very light.
But don't talk now."
"Well--I hope _so_. Me, I wou'n' take ten thousand dollahs faw thad feveh
myself--to see that devotion of my wife. You muz 'ave observe', eh?"
"Yes, indeed, old man; nobody could help observing. I wouldn't talk any
more just now."
"No," he insisted, "nobody could eveh doubt. 'Action speak loudeh than
word,' eh?"
"Yes, but we don't want either from you just now." I put his restless arms
back under the cover; not to keep the outer temperature absolutely even
was counted a deadly risk. "Besides," I said, "you're talking out of
character, old boy."
He looked at me mildly, steadily, for several moments, as if something
about me gave him infinite comfort. It was a man's declaration of love to
a man, and as he read the same in my eyes, he closed his own and drowsed.
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