Maid of the Mist

em with which every medical man co

wanted to die, and, as he believed, make an end; who begged constantly for the relief of death;-and yet, against his own equally strong

s, that he would die. He wished it more ardently each time

grew ever more despairing in their shadowy rings, were sure indexes of what she

ame time, by the irony of circumstance and the claims of his profession, he must

udden and unlooked for end, on t

em, out of his day's work, when he met young Job coming down the drive w

Doctor," said youn

urprise, for his patient had been more ve

too, say I, and so too says

ob? He was going on a

ampageous to live. Th' air were so full o' fire and brimstone with his curses, it

m when he died? Tell me all you kno

wn an' waited for him to wake up and start again. But he never woke, and when the missus came in this morning she went and looked at him, and she says, 'Why, Job, I do believe he's dead,' and I went and looked at him, and, God's truth, he looked as if he might be. But I couldn't be sure, not liking to touch him, and I says, 'No such luck, ma'am, I'm afraid,'-po

of which were opened to their widest, as though to cleanse the room of the fire

as this world was concerned, startlingly quiet after

at the quiet dignity which Death sometimes imparts even to those whose lives hav

own to the dead man to investigate more closely when a sound behind him caused him to look round, and he foun

d," she sa

t as a merciful release-f

on with a touch of rising hysteria, but still speaking in little more than a whisper. "You know how he wanted to die. He was asking you all the time to give him something to end it. But you could not. I know-I quite understand

.." he gasped. "...

better so," and she pointed at the dead man on the bed. "It is

berration. Her face was wan-white still, but had lost the broken, beaten look it had worn of late. The shadow-ringed eyes

eans?" he asked at las

, Wulfrey, I couldn't help thinking-hoping that-sometime-not for a long time, of

you thinking that when you did

I just did what he told me to do.

rusque vehemence, "Is it possible you don't understand wh

to know anything abou

ant to know how

falling at the old road that killed him. If he hadn't broken

ith an abrupt gesture. "The law requires of me the exact truth. Do you understa

k it hi

, and the law will hold you

hat at last she understood clearly enough the peril in whi

fe in a mad-house, which would be infinitely worse than hanging. And the th

ful, wistful, with terror now in her white face and sha

this to anyone. You understand?-not a word to anyone. I must think