The doctor glanced at the bed, then at my mother, and his glance riveted on her.

Surprise warmed into admiration,--admiration stood checked by reverence.

He advanced a few steps into the room, and made her as lowly a bow as if she were an empress.

She rose without speaking and motioned me to hand him a chair; but waiving the offered civility, he went up to the side of the bed and laid his fingers quietly on the pulse of his patient.

He stood gravely counting the ticking of life's great chronometer, while my mother leaned forward with pale, parted lips, and I gazed upon him as if the issues of life and death were in his hands.
"I wish I had been called sooner," said he, with a slight contraction of the brows, "but we will do all we can to relieve her." He called for a basin and linen bandage, and taking a lancet from his pocket, held up the sharp, gleaming point to the light.