she wished the doctor to take her under his charge and visit her at
least once a week. The doctor was not at home, but Tom said he
expected him every moment. So seating himself in the armchair, Guy
waited until he came.

"Well, Hal," he began, jocosely, but the joking words he would have
uttered next died on his lips as he noticed the strange look of
excitement and anxiety on the doctor's face. "What is it?" he asked.
"Are all your patients dead?"

"Guy," and the doctor came closely to him, whispering huskily, "you
and I are murderers in the first degree. Yes; and both deserve to be
hung. Do you remember that Madeline Clyde whom you insulted with your
logic and Latin verbs? She'd set her heart on that certificate. She
wanted the money, not for new gowns and fooleries mind, but to help
her old grandfather pay his debts. His place is mortgaged. I don't
understand it; but he asked some old hunks to lend him the money, and
the miserly rascal, whoever he was, refused. I wish I had it. I'd give
it to him out and out. But that's nothing to do with the girl--Maddy
they call her. The disappointment killed her, and she's dying--is
raving crazy--and keeps talking of that confounded examination. I tell
you, Guy, my inward parts get terribly mixed up when I hear her talk,
and my heart thumps like a trip-hammer. That's the reason I have not
been up to Aikenside. I wouldn't leave Maddy so long as there was
hope. I did not tell them this morning. I couldn't make that poor
couple feel worse than they are feeling; but when I looked at her,
tossing from side to side and picking at the bedclothes, I knew it
would soon be over--that when I saw her again the poor little arms
would be still enough and the bright eyes shut forever. Guy, I
couldn't see her die--I don't like to see anybody die, but her, Maddy,