Opiates were of little use in these cruel hours.

It was now impossible to give him an amount sufficient to produce relief without endangering the life that hung by so thin a thread.
"I suppose this excellent grandson of his would say that Mr.Thorpe ought to be killed forthwith, and put out of his misery," said the doctor, discussing his patient's condition with the young wife in the library after a long visit upstairs.
Anne started violently.

"What do you mean by that, Dr.Bates ?" she inquired, after a moment in which she managed to subdue her agitation.
"Perhaps I shouldn't have said it," apologised the old physician, really distressed.

"I did it quite thoughtlessly, my dear Mrs.Thorpe.I forgot that you do not read the medical journals." "Oh, I know what Braden has always preached," she said hurriedly.

"But it never--it never occurred to me that--" She did not complete the sentence.