Delville entered
to find Mrs. Bent screaming for the Doctor as she ran round the
room. Mrs. Hauksbee, her hands to her ears, and her face buried in
the chintz of a chair, was quivering with pain at each cry from the
bed, and murmuring, 'Thank God, I never bore a child! Oh! thank
God, I never bore a child!'
Mrs. Delville looked at the bed for an instant, took Mrs. Bent by
the shoulders, and said quietly, 'Get me some caustic. Be quick.'
The mother obeyed mechanically. Mrs. Delville had thrown
herself down by the side of the child and was opening its mouth.
'Oh, you're killing her!' cried Mrs. Bent. 'Where's the Doctor?
Leave her alone!'
Mrs. Delville made no reply for a minute, but busied herself with
the child.
'Now the caustic, and hold a lamp behind my shoulder. Will you
do as you are told? The acid-bottle, if you don't know what I mean,'
she said.
A second time Mrs. Delville bent over the child. Mrs. Hauksbee,
her face still hidden, sobbed and shivered. One of the ayahs
staggered sleepily into the room, yawning: 'Doctor Sahib come.'
Mrs. Delville turned her head.
'You're only just in time,' she said. 'It was chokin' her when I came,
an' I've burnt it.'
'There was no sign of the membrane getting to the air-passages
after the last steaming. It was the general weakness I feared,' said
the Doctor half to himself, and he whispered as he looked, 'You've
done what I should have been afraid to do without consultation.
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