"I'll stay outside here," Rhoda Gray promised. "I won't go away
without seeing you again.

Rhoda Gray sat down on a settee in the hall. She glanced at her
wrist watch. It was five minutes of eleven. Doctors and nurses
came and went from the room. Then a great quiet seemed to settle
down around her. A half hour passed. A doctor went into the room,
and presently came out again. She intercepted him as he came along
the corridor.

He shook his head.

She did not understand his technical explanation. There was
something about a clot and blood stoppage. But as she resumed her
seat, she understood very fully that the end was near. The woman
was resting quietly now, the doctor had said, but if she, Rhoda Gray,
cared to wait, she could see the other before leaving the hospital.

And so she waited. She had promised Gypsy Nan she would.

The minutes dragged along. A quarter of an hour passed. Still
another. Midnight came. Fifteen minutes more went by, and then a
nurse came out of the room, and, standing by the door, beckoned to
Rhoda Gray.

"She is asking for you," the nurse said. "Please do not stay more
than a few minutes. I shall be outside here, and if you notice the
slightest change, call me instantly."

Rhoda Gray nodded.