One morning, in the fall of 1880, a middle-aged woman, accompanied by a young girl of eighteen, presented herself at the clerk’s desk of the principal hotel in Columbus, Ohio, and made inquiry as to whether there was anything about the place that she could do. She was of a helpless, fleshy build, with a frank open countenance and an innocent, diffident manner. Her eyes were large and patient, and in them dwelt such a shadow of distress as only those who have looked sympathetically into the countenances of the distraught and helpless poor know anything about. Any one could...

The spirit of Jennie—who shall express it? This daughter of poverty, who was now to fetch and carry the laundry of this distinguished citizen of Columbus, was a creature of a mellowness which words can but vaguely suggest. There are natures born to the inheritance of flesh that come without understanding, and that go again without seeming to have wondered why. Life, as long as they endure it, is a true wonderland, a thing of infinite beauty, which could they but wander into it, wonderingly, would be heaven enough. Opening their eyes, they see a conformable and perfect world....

The junior senator from Ohio, George Sylvester Brander, was a man of peculiar mould. In him there were joined, to a remarkable degree, the wisdom of the opportunist and the sympathies of the true representative of the people. Born a native of southern Ohio, he had been raised and educated there, if one might except the two years in which he had studied law at Columbia University, and the other years in which he had received polish and breadth at Washington. Not over-wise in the sense of absolute understanding, he could still be called a learned man. He knew common...

The desire to flee, which Jennie experienced upon seeing the senator again, was attributable to what she considered the disgrace of her position. She was ashamed to think that he, who thought so well of her, should discover her doing so common a thing. Girl-like, she was inclined to imagine that his interest in her depended upon things which were better than this.

When Jennie reached home, Mrs. Gerhardt had heard of her flight from the other children.

“What was the matter with you, anyhow?” asked George, when she came in.

“Oh, nothing,” she answered, but immediately turned to her...

Having been conducted by circumstances into so obligated an attitude toward the senator, it was not unnatural for Jennie to conceive most generously of everything he had done, or, from now on, did. New benefactions contributed to this feeling. The senator gave her father a letter to a local mill-owner, who saw that he received something to do. It was not much, to be sure, a mere job as night-watchman, but it had significant results. One of these was the extreme gratefulness of the latter, who could anticipate, from now on, only good flowing from such a quarter.

Another agreeable...

The father of this unfortunate family, William Gerhardt, was a man of considerable interest on his personal side. Born in the Kingdom of Saxony, he had had character enough to oppose the army-conscription iniquity, and flee, in his eighteenth year, to Paris. From there he had set forth for America, the land of promise.

Arrived in this country, he had made his way by slow stages from New York to Philadelphia and thence westward, working for a time in the various glass factories of Pennsylvania, and found, in one romantic village of this new world, his heart’s ideal. With her,...

The outcome of this was in true keeping with the dictates of poverty. Gerhardt had no time to act. He did not know any one to whom he could appeal between the hours of two and nine o’clock in the morning. He went back to talk with his wife, and then to his post of duty. But it almost strained his heart cords to the point of snapping. With her, he had discussed ways and means, but who does not know the modest resources of the poor? Only one man could they think of who was able, or possibly willing,...

It cannot be said that at this time a clear sense of what had happened—of what social and physical significance this new relationship to the senator entailed, was present in Jennie’s mind. She was not conscious as yet of that shock which the possibility of maternity, even under the most favorable conditions, brings to the average woman. The astonishing awakening which comes to one who has not thought of the possibilities of the situation, has not dreamed that the time is ripe or the hour has come, was for a later period. Her present attitude was one of surprise,...

The world into which Jennie was thus unduly sent forth was that in which virtue has always struggled since time immemorial, for virtue is the wishing well and the doing well unto others. Since time immemorial, those who have been gentle enough to carry the burdens have been allowed to carry them, and the tendency to be lamblike has usually made for the shambles. Virtue is that quality of generosity which offers itself willingly for service to others, and, being this, it is held by society to be nearly worthless. Sell yourself cheaply and you shall be used lightly and...

The incidents of the days that followed, relating as they did peculiarly to Jennie, were of an order which the morality of our day has agreed to taboo. Certain processes of the All-mother, the great artificing wisdom of the power that in silence and darkness works and weaves—when viewed in the light of the established opinion of some of the little individuals created by it, are considered very vile. “How is it,” we ask ourselves, “that any good can come of contemplating so disagreeable a process?” And we turn our faces away from the creation of life, as if...

It is marvelous with what rapidity facts take hold upon the young mind and how new phases of life will sometimes create the illusion of a new and different order of society.

Bass was no sooner in Cleveland than the marvel of that growing city was sufficient to completely restore his equanimity of soul, and stir up new illusions as to the possibility of joy and rehabilitation for himself and the family. “If only they could come here,” he thought. “If only they could all get work and do right.” Here was no evidence of any of their recent troubles,...

The details of this family transfer were not long in working themselves out. At the depot, where Bass met Jennie, he at once began that explanation of things which led to the final arrangement of matters as originally planned. She was to get work.

“That’s the first thing,” he said, while the jingle of sound and color, which the body of the great city presented to her, was confusing and almost numbing her senses. “Get something to do. It doesn’t matter what, so long as you get something. If you don’t get more than three or four dollars a week,...

For the first winter things went smoothly enough. By the closest economy the children were clothed and kept in school, the rent paid and the installments met. Once it looked as though there might be some difficulty about the continuance of the home life, and that was when Gerhardt wrote that he would be home for Christmas. The mill was to close down for a short period at that time. He was naturally anxious to see what the new life of his family at Cleveland was like.

Mrs. Gerhardt and all the rest would have welcomed his return with unalloyed...

The difficulty after this was not so much concerning Gerhardt’s attitude toward Jennie, for time seemed inclined to mend this gradually, but with the financial problem. It is true he did not recognize her presence, but this was a part of the unsubdued element of a storm that was on the wane. All during his stay he was shy in her presence and endeavored to make it appear as if he were unconscious of her being. When the time came for parting he even went away without bidding her goodbye, telling his wife she might do that for him, but,...

The shock of this sudden encounter was so great to Jennie that she was hours in recovering herself. She did not understand clearly at first just what had happened. This man had appeared attractive to her truly, but she did not know that it warranted any more than a passing glance from her, certainly nothing from him. And yet, suddenly, out of clear sky, as it were, this astonishing thing had happened. She had yielded herself to another man. Why? Why? she asked herself, and yet within her own consciousness there was an answer. Though she could not explain, she...

Meanwhile Jennie was going through the agony of one who has a varied and complicated problem to confront. Her baby, her father, her brothers and sisters all rose up to confront her. What was this thing she was doing? What other wretched relationship was she allowing herself to slip into? How was she to explain to this man, if at all, why she did not want to have anything to do with him—could not. How to explain to her family about him if she did. He would not marry her, that was sure, if he knew. He would not...

The inconclusive nature of this interview, exciting as it was, did not leave any doubt in either Lester Kane’s or Jennie’s mind; certainly this was not the end of the affair. Kane knew that he was deeply fascinated. This girl was lovely. She was sweeter than he had had any idea of. Her hesitancy, her repeated protests, her gentle no, no, no’s, moved him as music might. This girl was for him, depend on that. He would get her. He would get her by any method he could, but he proposed to get her. She was too sweet to let...

This dinner, his conversation with his father, his visit to the Knowles’ coming-out party still further emphasized the distinctive nature of his home life, so different from the quality of the liaison he had fallen on in Cleveland. As Lester came downstairs after making his toilet, he found his father in the library reading, as was the old gentleman’s wont when waiting for his late dinner.

“Hello, Lester,” he said, looking up from his paper over the top of his glasses and extending his hand. “Where do you come from?”

“Cleveland,” replied his son, gripping his father’s hand firmly and...

The arrival of this letter, coming after a week of silence and after she had had a chance to think deeply, served to concentrate all Jennie’s ideas and feelings, not only concerning Lester, but also concerning her home, her child and herself, and presented them in rapid order for immediate consideration and answer. What now did she truly feel about this gentleman? What did she intend to do and say? Did she sincerely wish to answer his letter? Could she? If so, what must she say, and how adjust her movements so that her father would not be offended, her...

The fatal Friday came, and with it the soul dread she had been suffering was heightened to the N^thpower. She was overwrought with the necessity of this thing—the tragedy; really she was not herself, and she went through the details of her toilet in the morning with a sense of weariness such as had not been customary to her of late. She was turning over in her mind an excuse to Mrs. Bracebridge for going out, an explanation to her mother of her present conduct after she had done what she was going to do, an explanation to...

The business of arranging for this sudden departure was really not as difficult as it had appeared. Jennie proposed to tell her mother the whole truth, and there was nothing to say to her father except that she was going with Mrs. Bracebridge at the latter’s request. He might question her, but he really could not doubt. There was no reason. Lester had convinced her of that. Before going home, however, she accompanied Lester to a department store, where she was fitted out with a trunk, a travelling suit-case, a travelling suit and hat—the discriminating taste of her lover...

The problem of the Gerhardt family and its relationship to himself comparatively settled, Kane betook himself to Cincinnati and those commercial duties that ordinarily held him in reasonable check. He was heartily interested in the immense plant, which occupied two whole blocks in the outskirts of the city, and the theory of its conduct and development was as much a problem and a pleasure to him as to either his father or brother. He liked to think of the immense office building in the heart of the business section of Cincinnati, of its far-reaching ramitications. Carriages were shipped to Australia...

It was only a little time after this, a month in all, before Jennie was able to announce that Lester intended to marry her. Lester’s visits had of course paved the way for this, and it seemed natural enough. She had come to be looked upon in the family as something rather out of the ordinary, for somehow things seemed to happen to Jennie. She got in with astonishing people; she seemed to see more of the world; she was constantly doing something out of the ordinary. Gerhardt, the only one whom she was really anxious to placate, was of...

The fact that Lester did not at this time permanently establish Jennie in a home of her own was due to certain chilling complications at the commercial and social ends of his life. It appeared that in spite of his personal precautions, someone had seen him in New York who knew him and had reported the fact that he was with a girl. The details had not been received straight but they were sufficiently circumstantial to give rise to the report that he was secretly married—this among a few intimate friends of the family. Kane senior was of course...

In the home of the Kane family at Cincinnati there were also things transpiring which made it look as though readjustments would have to take place in that quarter. During the last three years in which Lester had been thus tentatively associated with Jennie at his convenience, his attitude had changed considerably, although he himself was not aware of it. Unconsciously and indifferently he had come to think more of her as a worth while companion— soul-mate or affinity, had those terms been invented at that time—had come to rely upon her services, which were legion, when he was...

During the three years in which Jennie and Lester had been associated, there had grown up between them an understanding which, while it may have appeared rather weak and unsatisfactory to the outsider, had a number of elements of strength. It is true that, in the first place, Lester did not care for her in the wild way a young lover might, but he loved her, as Jennie well knew, in his way. It was a strong, self-satisfying, determined kind of way, based solidly in a big animal nature, but rearing itself through feelings and subtleties of understanding and appreciation...

Nothing more was said about the incident of the toy lamb. Time might have wholly effaced the impression from Lester’s memory had nothing else intervened to arouse his suspicions, but a mishap of any kind seems invariably to be linked with others which follow as a matter of course. One day it was a drawer which he thought she closed rather nervously upon his entering the room; another time it was a story-book concealed under a cloth, of which he made no remark although it seemed rather an odd thing to find. Lastly it was the discovery of a little...

The sullen, philosophic Lester was not as determined upon a course of action as he appeared to be. Solemn as was his mood and speculative, he did not see after all exactly what grounds he had for complaint. The child’s existence complicated matters considerably. He did not like to see the evidence of Jennie’s previous misdeeds walking about in the shape of a human being, but as a matter of fact he admitted to himself that he might have forced Jennie’s story out of her before if he had gone about it in earnest. She would not have lied, he...

There was peace and quiet for some time after this storm. Jennie went the next day and brought Vesta away with her. She had no difficulty in explaining to the Swede mother, since Vesta’s health offered a sufficient excuse. There was then the reunion of the mother and child in this still-uncertain home, the joy of which made up for many other worries. “Now I can do by her as I ought,” she thought, and three or four times during the day she found herself humming a little song.

Lester came only occasionally at first. He was trying to make...

The following spring the new showrooms and warehouse were completed and Lester took up his work in the building proper. Heretofore, he had been transacting all his business affairs at the Grand Pacific and the club. From now on he felt himself to be firmly established in Chicago—as if that were to be his future home. A large number of details were thrown upon him—the control of a considerable office force and the handling of various important transactions. It took away from him the need of traveling, that duty going to Amy’s husband, under the direction of Robert....

The storm of feeling which Lester anticipated Louise’s report would arouse was not long in making itself felt even in Chicago. Outraged in her family pride, Louise lost no time in returning to Cincinnati, where she told the story of her discovery, embellished with many details. According to her, she was met at the door by a “silly-looking, white-faced woman” who did not even offer to invite her in when she announced her name, but stood there “looking just as guilty as a person possibly could.” Lester also had acted shamefully, having brazened the matter out to her face, and,...

In this world of ours the activities of animal life seem to be limited to a plane or circle, as if that were an inherent necessity to the creatures of a planet which is perforce compelled to swing about the sun. A fish, for instance, may not pass out of the circle of the seas without courting annihilation; a bird may not enter the domain of the fishes without paying for it dearly. From the parasites of the flowers to the monsters of the jungle and the deep, we see clearly the circumscribed nature of their gyrations—the emphatic manner...

In the meantime Jennie had been going through a moral siege of her own. For the first time in her life, aside from her family’s attitude, which had afflicted her greatly, she had a taste of what the outer world thought. She was bad—she knew that. She had yielded on two occasions to circumstances which, as she sometimes thought, might have been fought out on different lines. If she had had more courage! If she did not always have this haunting sense of fear! Sometimes she thought she was cursed with a sense of fear, inherited from her father...

The trouble with Jennie’s plan was that it did not definitely include a sane interpretation of Lester’s attitude. He did care for her in a feral, Hyperborean way, but he was hedged about by the ideas of the conventional world in which he had been reared. To say that he cared enough for her to take her for better or worse—to legalize her anomalous position and face the world bravely with the fact that he had picked a wife who was suitable to him, whether she met with the ideas of those who were socially entitled to sit in...

The proposition in regard to a residence in Hyde Park was not long in materializing. After several weeks had gone and things had quieted down again, Lester invited Jennie to go with him to South Hyde Park to look for a house, and on the first trip they found something which suited him admirably—and in consequence her—an old-time home of eleven large rooms set in a lawn fully two hundred feet square and shaded by trees which had been planted when the city was young. It was ornate, homelike, peaceful. Lester’s reasons for looking for a place at...

The progress of the general situation in regard to Lester, Jennie, and the home, after Gerhardt’s arrival, was considerable. Gerhardt, having been duly installed, a rather emaciated old figure, bestirred himself at once about the labors which he felt instinctively concerned him. The furnace and the yard he took charge of, outraged at the thought that good money should be paid to any outsider when he himself had nothing to do. The trees, he declared to Jennie, were in a dreadful condition. If Lester would get him a pruning knife and a saw, he would fix these things in the...

The first impressions of a neighborhood are seldom enduring, as we all know well enough, and the first impressions of this particular neighborhood were subject to some modification, for they had been altogether a little too favorable. Jennie was charming to look at, gracious, but there were rumors which came from here and there. A Mrs. Sommerville, calling on Mrs. Craig, one of Jennie’s immediate neighbors, reported that she knew who Lester was—“Oh, yes indeed. You know, my dear,” she went on, “his reputation is just a little—” she raised her eye-brows and her hand at the same...

During the time in which Lester had been putting his “matrimonial” relationship upon a more pretentious basis, the Kane family had been contemplating his stolid ignoring of the conventions with mingled pain and dissatisfaction. That it could not help but become a general scandal, in the course of time, was obvious to them. Rumors were already about at home. People seemed to understand in a wise way, though nothing ever was said directly. Kane senior could scarcely think what possessed his son to fly in the face of conventions in this manner and then deliberately persevere in his course. If...

This information as to Lester’s new arrangements in Chicago, communicated by degrees to the family, did not really make the opposition any more marked than it had been, though it fanned the flames anew. Although his sisters and brother were compelled to believe the information, they did not consider the arrangements natural or of any real enduring character. How could he—Lester—accept a home life under any conditions with a woman who knew nothing—an uneducated creature who was all wrong before she met him? And he the prospective heir of a half-million in his own right! Dear heaven!...

To contravene the social conventions of your time, to fly in the face of what people consider to be right and proper and to present a determined and self-willed attitude toward the world in matters of desire is quite an interesting and striking thing to contemplate as a policy, and quite a difficult one to work out to a logical and successful conclusion. The conventions, in their way, appear to be as inexorable in their workings as the laws of gravitation and expansion. There is a drift to society as a whole which pushes on in a certain direction, careless...

The fact that Lester had seen this page was made perfectly clear to Jennie that evening, for he brought it home himself, having concluded, after mature deliberation, that he ought to. He had told her once that there was to be no concealment between them, and this thing, coming brutally as it did to disturb their peace, was nevertheless a case in point. He had decided to tell her not to think anything of it—that it did not make so much difference, though to him it made all the difference in the world. The effect of this chill history...

This attempt at coercion was quite the one thing which could definitely and firmly set Lester in opposition to his family, for the time being anyhow. He had realized clearly enough of late that he had made a very big mistake in not having married Jennie in the first place, openly and above board, and thus avoided scandal, or, alternately, in not having accepted her proposition at the time she wanted to leave him and let her go back to Cleveland. It might have been better all around. Certainly, since he had not been willing to do that, it was...

For a man of Lester’s years—he was now forty-six—to be tossed out in the world without a definite connection, even though he did have a present income (including this new ten thousand) of fifteen thousand a year, was a disturbing and discouraging thing. He realized now that, unless he made some very fortunate and profitable arrangement in the near future, he could easily get to the place where it would be hard for him to make much of a showing of any kind. He could marry Jennie. That would give him definitely ten thousand for the rest of...

It was while travelling abroad that Lester came across, first at the Savoy in London and later at Shepheard’s in Cairo, the former favorite of his father and the one girl, before Jennie, whom it might have been said he truly admired—Letty Pace. He had not seen her for a long time. She had been Mrs. Malcolm Gerald for nearly four years, and a charming widow for nearly two years more. Malcolm Gerald had been a very wealthy man, having amassed a fortune (which, it was rumored, ran into millions) in banking and stock-brokering in Cincinnati, and he had...

That night after dinner, the music was already sounding in the ball-room of the great hotel, adjacent to the palm gardens, when Mrs. Gerald found Lester smoking on one of the verandas with Jennie by his side. The latter was in white satin and white silk slippers, her hair lying a heavy, enticing mass about her forehead and ears. Lester was brooding over the history of Egypt—its successive tides or waves of rather weak-bodied people; the thin, narrow strip of soil along either side of the Nile that had given these successive waves of population sustenance; the wonder of...

On his return from Europe, Lester set to work in earnest to find a business opening. He was not sounded out, as he had hoped, by any of the big companies for the single reason, principally, that he was considered a strong man who was looking for control in anything he touched. The nature of his altered fortunes had not been made public. All the little companies that he investigated were having a hand-to-mouth existence, manufacturing a product which was not satisfactory to him, or coupled with individuals who were arbitrary or unsuited to his moods. He did find one...

Lester had been doing some pretty hard thinking, but so far he had been unable to formulate any feasible plan for his re-entrance into active life. The successful organization of Robert’s carriage-trade trust had knocked in the head any further thought on his part of taking an interest in the small Indiana wagon manufactory. Rapidly nearing forty-seven years of age, he looked about him now and saw that the best and most interesting avenue to distinction was closed for him. He could not reasonably be expected to sink his sense of pride and place at this point and enter into...

Since Lester had been cut off by his father’s will and had left the Kane Company, he had not made one single move which, in his judgement, had shown the least initiative or cleverness. If up to this time he had made any such, he would have felt better about life in general, his own personal ability, his judgement of men and affairs. As it was, he hadn’t. If he went back into the family interests, as his natural commercial judgement counseled him to, if he left Jennie and took his share in the Kane Company, or married Mrs. Gerald,...

While this real-estate deal was first being mediated and engineered, Mrs. Gerald decided to move to Chicago. She had been in Cincinnati during the few months Lester had been looking about and had learned a great deal, from this person and that, as to the real facts of his life. The question as to whether he was really married to Jennie or not was an open one. The fact that he had lost his fortune, or would lose it unless he rearranged his affairs so as to eliminate her, was talked about in certain circles. The garbled details of her...

Lester had thought of this predicament of his earnestly enough, and he would have been satisfied to have acted shortly after this, if it had not been that one of those delaying and disrupting influences which sometimes complicate our affairs for us began to manifest itself in his Hyde Park domicile. Gerhardt’s health began rapidly to fail.

For some little time during the summer while they were away, Gerhardt had been ailing. His appetite had been poor, and he had been complaining of pains in his back, a symptom, though he did not know it, of a disarrangement in the...

The fact that Gerhardt was dead did not really make so much difference to Lester sympathetically. He had admired the old German for several sterling qualities, but beyond that he had thought nothing of him, one way or the other. He took Jennie to a watering place for ten days after it was all over, and it was soon after this that he decided to tell her just how things stood with him anyhow, and to see what she would say. His cause in this respect was helped by the fact that Jennie knew of the disastrous trend of the...

The explanation which Lester had concluded must come, whether it led to separation or legalization of their hitherto banal condition, followed quickly upon the appearance of Mr. O’Brien; for Lester was ready to talk to Jennie and felt that any day now might see the important conversation come to pass. On the day Mr. O’Brien had called, Lester had been gone on a journey to Hegewisch, a small manufacturing town, where he had been invited to witness the trial of a new motor intended to operate elevators—with a view to possible investment. When he came out to the house...

The little town of Sandwood, “this side of Kenosha,” as Jennie had expressed it, was only a little distance from Chicago, an hour and fifteen minutes by any of the local trains which stopped there. It had a population of some three hundred families, dwelling in small cottages which were scattered over a pleasant area of lake-shore property. The land line of the lake gave in at that point and formed a miniature bay on which rested the few boats of those who liked sailing. There were a number of trees—quite a grove of pines in fact, which were...

The social worlds of Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland and other cities saw, during the year or two which followed the breaking of his relationship with Jennie, a curious rejuvenation in the social and business spirit of Lester Kane. He had become rather distant and indifferent to certain personages and affairs while he was living with her, but now he suddenly appeared again, armed with authority from a number of sources, looking into this and that matter with the air of one who has the privilege of power, and showing himself to be quite a personage from the point of view of...

It is difficult to say whether Lester might not have returned to Jennie after all but for certain influential factors. After a time, with his control of his portion of the estate firmly settled in his hands and the storm of original feeling forgotten, he was well aware that diplomacy—if he ignored his natural tendency to fulfill even implied obligations—could readily bring about an arrangement whereby he and Jennie could be together. But he was haunted by the sense of what might be called an important social opportunity in the form of Mrs. Gerald. He was compelled to...

The engagement of Lester to Mrs. Gerald came to its formal fruition rapidly enough. Because of her charm and eagerness, and her persistent and consummate diplomacy, he found himself gradually contenting himself with the idea that this union was as it should be, and that all was for the best. He was sorry for Jennie—very sorry. So was Mrs. Gerald, but there was a practical unguent to her grief in the thought that it was best for both of them. He would be happier—was now. Jennie would be eventually, realizing that she had done a wise and kindly...

This additional blow, which fortune so inconsiderately administered, was quite sufficient to return Jennie to that state of hyper-melancholia from which she had been with difficulty extracted by the few years of comfort and affection which she had enjoyed with Lester in Hyde Park. It was really weeks before she could realize that Vesta was gone. The emaciated figure which she saw in the bed for a day or two after the end did not seem like Vesta. Where was the joy and lightness? the quickness of motion? the subtle radiance of health? All gone. Only this pale, lily-hued shell—...

The drift of events for a period of five years saw a marked divergence in the affairs of Lester and Jennie—a period in which they settled naturally into their respective spheres without that exchange of relationship, or at least very little of it, which their several meetings at the Tremont would have indicated. The social and financial life which he was leading was rather binding at first. It led him in paths to which her retiring soul had never aspired. At the same time, these years took her back to the extreme simplicities which she had once fancied, at...

The days of man under the old dispensation, or, rather, according to that supposedly biblical formula, which persists, are threescore years and ten. It is so ingrained in the race-consciousness by mouth-to-mouth utterance that it seems the profoundest of truths. As a matter of fact, man, even under his mortal illusion, is organically built to last five times the period of his maturity and would last as long as the spirit that is in him if he but knew that it is spirit which persists, that age is an illusion, that there is no death. Yet the race-thought, gained from...

The end came after four days during which Jennie, as a friend of his wife’s apparently, watched over him as she had always watched over everything which commanded her love, sympathy or sense of duty. She was by his bed constantly, never leaving it longer than was required to do some necessary thing. The nurse in charge welcomed her at first as a relief and as company, but the physician was inclined to object. Lester was stubborn. “This is my death,” he said to Watson, with a touch of grim humor. “If I’m dying I ought to be allowed to...