Page:Delight - de la Roche - 1926.djvu/128

 "I think it's hysterics," said Bastien, and he asked—"Are you in pain?"

"Not now," she answered wearily, "but it'll come back again. . . . If I could only get upstairs."

"Make an effort," advised Charley pompously. "Make an effort same as I do. Say to yourself—'I will conquer this here weakness.

"Shut up!" ordered Bastien.

He bent over Mrs. Bye. "Put your arms around my neck," he said, and heaved her up against his shoulder. He was of athletic build, and strong. In a moment he had carried Mrs. Bye up the stairs and laid her on her own bed. Charley regarded the feat with mild interest.

It was certain that Mrs. Bye was a very sick woman. When she and Pearl were left alone in the bedroom she raised herself on her elbow and, pointing with a shaking finger at a small box on the dresser, said:

"Hand me those powders, Pearl. I don't want the doctor to see them."

Pearl obeyed, and Mrs. Bye, sitting up now, took two folded papers from the box, emptied them into the basin beside the bed, tore the papers and box into small fragments, and ordered the girl to throw them out of the window.

She dropped back on the pillow then and passed before Pearl's eyes into terrible convulsions. Mrs. Jessop came, her large mouth set in a grim line.

"Go back to your work, Pearl," she said. "This is no place for you."

The doctor came and stayed for hours. The girls cried in the kitchen. Charley had been sobered by the