of the wife of a small tradesman, he had found himself so ill that he
had gone to his friend for treatment, and Dr. Lucas had brought him
home, intending to stay all night with him.

Since the wife had arrived, the good old man, knowing how much rather
they would be alone, consented to sleep in another room, after having
done all that was possible for the night, and cautioned against
talking.

Indeed, Joe, heavy, stupefied, and struggling for breath, knew too
well what it all meant not to give himself all possible chance by
silent endurance, lying with his wife's hand in his, or sometimes
smoothing her cheek, but not speaking without necessity. Once he
told her that her head was aching, and made her lie down on the bed,
but he was too ill for this rest to last long, and the fits of
struggling with suffocation prevented all respite save for a few
minutes.

With the early light of the long summer morning Dr. Lucas looked in,
and would have sent her to bed, but she begged off, and a sign from
her husband seemed to settle the matter, for the old physician went
away again, perhaps because his eyes were full of tears.

The first words Joe said when they were again alone was "My tablets."
She went in search of them to his dressing-room, and not finding them
there, was about to run down to the consulting-room, when Janet came
out already dressed, and fetched them for her, as well as a white
slate, on which he was accustomed to write memorandums of
engagements.