Read The Sins of the Father: A Romance of the South Page 15

  CHAPTER XIV

  THE FIGHT FOR LIFE

  The little wife made a brave fight. For a week there was no sign of abreakdown save an unnatural brightness of the eyes that told the story ofstruggle within. He gave himself to the effort to help her win. He spentbut an hour at the Capitol, left a Speaker _pro tem_ in the chair, hurriedto his office, gave his orders and by eleven o'clock he was at home,talking, laughing, and planning a day's work that would interest her andbring back the flush to her pale cheeks.

  She had responded to his increasing tenderness and devotion with patheticeagerness. At the beginning of the second week Doctor Williams gave himhope:

  "It looks to me, my boy," he said thoughtfully, "that I'm seeing a miracle.I think she's not only going to survive the shock, but, what's moreremarkable, she's going to recover her health again. The mind's the sourceof health and power. We give medicines, of course, but the thought thatheals the soul will reach the body. Bah!--the body is the soul anyhow, forall our fine-spun theories, and the mind is only one of the ways throughwhich we reach it----"

  "You really think she may be well again?" Norton asked with boyisheagerness.

  "Yes, if you can reconcile her mind to this thing, she'll not only live,she will be born again into a more vigorous life. Why not? The preachershave often called me a godless rationalist. But I go them one better whenthey preach the miracle of a second, or spiritual birth. I believe in thepossibility of many births for the human soul and the readjustment of thesebodies of ours to the new spirits thus born. If you can tide her over thenext three weeks without a breakdown, she will get well."

  The husband's eyes flashed:

  "If it depends on her mental attitude, I'll make her live and grow strong.I'll give her my body and soul."

  "There are just two dangers----"

  "What?"

  "The first mental--a sudden collapse of the will with which she's makingthis fight under a reaction to the memories of our system of educatedignorance, which we call girlish innocence. This may come at a moment whenthe consciousness of these 'ideals' may overwhelm her imagination and causea collapse----"

  "Yes, I understand," he replied thoughtfully. "I'll guard that."

  "The other is the big physical enigma----"

  "You mean?"

  "The possible reopening of that curious abscess in her throat."

  "But the specialist assured us it would never reappear----"

  "Yes, and he knows just as much about it as you or I. It is one of the fewcases of its kind so far recorded in the science of medicine. When the babywas born, the drawing of the mother's neck in pain pressed a bone of thespinal column into the flesh beside the jugular vein. Your specialist neverdared to operate for a thorough removal of the trouble for fear he wouldsever the vein----"

  "And if the old wound reopens it will reach the jugular vein?"

  "Yes."

  "Well--it--won't happen!" he answered fiercely. "It can't happen now----"

  "I don't think it will myself, if you can keep at its highest tension thedesire to live. That's the magic thing that works the miracle of life insuch cases. It makes food digest, sends red blood to the tips of theslenderest finger and builds up the weak places. Don't forget this, my boy.Make her love life, desperately and passionately, until the will to livedominates both soul and body."

  "I'll do it," was the firm answer, as he grasped the doctor's outstretchedhand in parting.

  He withdrew completely from his political work. A Speaker _pro tem_presided daily over the deliberations of the House, and an assistant editortook charge of the paper.

  The wife gently urged him to give part of his time to his work again.

  "No," he responded firmly and gayly. "The doctor says you have a chance toget well. I'd rather see the roses in your cheeks again than be thePresident of the United States."

  She drew his head down and clung to him with desperate tenderness.