And
then, as he stood near the sofa and looked at the death-like face,
he wondered with a cold chill at his heart whether Meg was going
to die, too, and if so would she be able to tell the same little
wife that Esther received more tenderness at his hands than she
had done.
His reverie was interrupted by the doctor's sharp, surprised
voice. He was talking to Esther, who had been hastily summoned to
the scene, and who had helped to unfasten the pretty bodice.
"Why, the child is tight-laced!" he said; "surely you must
have noticed it, madam. That pressure, if it has been constant,
has been enough to half kill her. Chut, chut! faint indeed--
I wonder she has not taken fits or gone into a decline before this."
Then a cloud of trouble came over Esther's beautiful face--she had
failed again in her duty. Her husband was regarding her almost
gloomily from the sofa, where the little figure lay in its
crumpled muslin dress, and her heart told her these children
were not receiving a mother's care at her hands.
Afterwards, when Meg was safely in bed and the excitement
all over, she went up to her husband almost timidly.
"I'm only twenty; Jack; don't be too hard on me!" she said
with a little sob in her voice.
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