angry apologies he was backing out of the door. But Joe caught his arm.

"You two and your etiquette be damned! Go in and look at that woman!"
he cried. And with a glance into Joe's eyes, the second doctor turned
to the first, muttered, "Hold this man. He's crazy "--and went into the
bedroom.

It was long before Ethel forgot the look that appeared on Joe's face
when the second physician came out and said:

"I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do."

She went in with Joe to Amy. And her sister looked so relieved, the
lines of pain all smoothed away. Heavily drugged, she was nearly
asleep. Her hand felt for Joe's and closed on it, and with a little
nestling movement of her soft lovely body she murmured smiling:

"Oh, so tired and sleepy now."

Again, in spite of her grief and fright, Ethel noticed how her sister's
hand closed on that of her husband. In the months and years that
followed, she recalled it vividly so many times.

Joe sat there long after Amy was dead.


The doctor signed to Ethel to come into the living-room.

"Are you to be in charge?" he asked. She looked at him and shivered.
She felt a pang of such loneliness as she had never known before.