Mr. Birtwell's had been to him one of debauch instead of restrained
conviviality. The extremity of his wife's condition, and his almost
insane appeals that he would hold her back from death, shocked still
further the doctor's already quivering nerves.

The imminent peril in which Doctor Hillhouse found Mrs. Ridley
determined him to call in another physician for consultation. As
twelve o'clock on that day had been fixed for the operation on Mrs.
Carlton, it was absolutely necessary to get his mind as free as
possible from all causes of anxiety or excitement, and the best
thing in this extremity was to get his patient into the hands of a
brother in the profession who could relieve him temporarily from
_all_ responsibility, and watch the case with all needed care in its
swiftly approaching crisis. So he sent Doctor Angier, immediately on
his return from his visit to Mrs. Ridley, with a request to Doctor
Ainsworth, a physician of standing and experience, to meet him in
consultation at ten o'clock.

Precisely at ten the physicians arrived at the house of Mr. Ridley,
and were admitted by that gentleman, whose pale, haggard, frightened
face told of his anguish and alarm. They asked him no questions, and
he preceded them in silence to the chamber of his sick wife. It
needed no second glance at their patient to tell the two doctors
that she was in great extremity. Her pinched face was ashen in color
and damp with a cold sweat, and her eyes, no longer wild and
restless, looked piteous and anxious, as of one in dreadful
suffering who pleaded mutely for help. An examination of her pulse
showed the beat to be frequent and feeble, and on the slightest
movement she gave signs of pain. Her respiration was short and very
rapid. Mr. Ridley was present, and standing in a position that