Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/27

Rh “Well, you see they’ve told her that in less than that time her husband will be at work again.”

“And what will the company do for them when the wife is a hopeless invalid, and the husband a cripple?”

Amherst again uttered the dry laugh with which he had met her suggestion of an emergency hospital. “I know what I should do if I could get anywhere near Dillon—give him an overdose of morphine, and let the widow collect his life-insurance, and make afresh start.”

She looked at him curiously. “Should you, I wonder?”

“If I saw the suffering as you see it, and knew the circumstances as I know them, I believe I should feel justified—” He broke off. “In your work, don’t you ever feel tempted to set a poor devil free?”

She mused. “One might… but perhaps the professional instinct to save would always come first.”

.“To save—what? When all the good of life is gone?”

“I daresay,” she sighed, “poor Dillon would do it himself if he could—when he realizes that all the good is gone.” '

“Yes, but he can’t do it himself; and it’s the irony of such cases that his employers, after ruining his life, will do all they can to patch up the ruins.”

“But that at least ought to count in their favour.”

“Perhaps; if——" He paused, as though reluctant [ 15 ]