Page:Pratt portraits - sketched in a New England suburb (IA prattportraitssk00full).pdf/112

 the cold, untender surface of this hateful gown! The poignancy of that thought was almost more than she could bear, and in the sudden rush of remorse and terror all her innocent vanity stood distorted into the guise of sin.

"My God! my God!" she prayed, as she had never prayed before, "I have been a wicked, worldly woman! Oh, my God! have pity!" No other words came, but all through those interminable minutes while she waited for help, "Have pity," she prayed,—"have pity!"

And suddenly, like an angel of deliverance, the doctor stood before her. He stooped and lifted the child from her arms, saying: "Don't be frightened, Martha, we'll save him yet." And she no more doubted his word than she would have doubted him had he indeed been an angel sent straight from heaven in answer to her prayer.

By two o'clock all was quiet and the child was sleeping peacefully.

"Come, Martha," Ben said, putting his hand on her shoulder as she sat by the bedside, still clad in the moiré antique. "Come, do go to bed, the doctor says there is nothing to fear, and I'll sit up with Eddie. You won't be fit for the ball to-morrow."

"The ball! the ball," she repeated. "Oh, Ben!"

But she went and changed the ball dress, shuddering as she listened to its stiff rattle, and then, in a soft wrapper, she lay down upon the bed be-