"You might at least have spared yourself the whole lifetime of pain that you have lived in these last few months.

You haven't cheated pain out of its year and a half." "True," said Mr.Thorpe, his lips twitching with the pain he was trying to defy; "I have not been able to laugh at the futility of pain.

Ah!" It was almost a scream that issued from between his stretched lips.

He began to writhe....
"Come in again to-night," he said half an hour later, whispering the words with difficulty.

The two nurses and the doctor's assistant, who had been staying in the house for more than a week, now stood back from the bedside, dripping with perspiration.