Then I sprang into my
clothes and sped across the street.
I went first around to the outer door of the dining-room, and was briefly
told the best I could have hoped, of Fontenette. I returned to the front
and stepped softly into what had been Mrs. Fontenette's room. Finding no
one in it I waited, and when I presently heard voices in the other room, I
touched its door-knob. Mrs. Smith came out, closed the door carefully, and
sank into a seat.
"It's been a noble fight!" she said, smiling up through her tears. "When
the doctor came back and saw how wonderfully the--the worst--had been held
off, he joined in the battle! He's been here three times since!"
"And can it be that she is going to pull through?"
My wife's face went down into her hands. "O, no--no. She's dying now--
dying in Senda's arms!"
Her ear, quicker than mine, heard some sign within and she left me. But
she was back almost at once, whispering:
"She knows you're here, and says she has a message to her husband which
she can give only to you."
We gazed into each other's eyes. "Go in," she said.
As I entered, Senda tenderly disengaged herself, went out, and closed the
door.
I drew near in silence and she began at once to speak, bidding me take the
chair Senda had left, and with a tender smile thanking me for coming.
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