Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/142

 half a dozen men around her. Rumors of the frequent collapses circulated, but Dr. Raymond made no effort to see her. During the last week of her New York engagement she sent for him, and the phlegmatic physician was horrified at the change two short months had made in her.

She gave him her hand and motioned him wearily to a chair.

"I did not believe you," she said, "and I did not take your advice. I have seen other doctors since, and they tell me that there is no hope, so I have sent for you that you may gloat over me."

"God forbid!" said Dr. Raymond, shocked at her levity. "I wish with all my heart that I had been, as you thought, mistaken. What are you going to do?" he added.

The woman laughed bitterly.

"Die," she said, with savage directness. "All you doctors say I must. And soon, too. But I am going to do something first, and I have sent for you to help me. If I must die, I will not die here with these—people—around me. I am going home, to my old convent, out West."

"You cannot bear the journey," objected the doctor. "That is why I have sent for you," retorted the Convent Girl, feverishly. "You must