Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/422

Rh “Even if there were, it would probably be death-in-life: complete paralysis of the lower body.”

He shuddered. “A dreadful fate! She was so gay and active”

“Yes—and the struggle with death, for the next few weeks, must involve incessant suffering … frightful suffering … perhaps vainly.…”

“I feared so,” he murmured, his kind face paling.

“Then why do you thank heaven that modern science has found such wonderful ways of prolonging life?”

He raised his head with a start and their eyes met. He saw that the nurse’s face was pale and calm—almost judicial in its composure—and his self-possession returned to him.

“As a Christian,” he answered, with his slow smile, “I can hardly do otherwise.”

Justine continued to consider him thoughtfully. “The men of the older generation—clergymen, I mean,” she went on in a low controlled voice, “would of course take that view—must take it. But the conditions are so changed—so many undreamed-of means of prolonging life—prolonging suffering—have been discovered and applied in the last few years, that I wondered … in my profession one often wonders.…”

“I understand,” he rejoined sympathetically, forgetting his youth and his inexperience in the simple desire to bring solace to a troubled mind. “I [ 406 ]