They
came, and he was not forgotten.
One evening Dr. Barnes was sitting with Martine and Helen at their
fireside. They had been talking about Nichol, and Helen remarked
thoughtfully, "It was so very strange that he should have regained
his memory in the way and at the time he did."
"No," replied the physician, "that part of his experience does not
strike me as so very strange. In typhoid cases a lucid interval is
apt to precede death. His brain, like his body, was depleted,
shrunken slightly by disease. This impoverishment probably removed
the cerebral obstruction, and the organ of memory renewed its
action at the point where it had been arrested. My theory explains
his last ejaculation, 'Ah!' It was his involuntary exclamation as
he again heard the shell burst. The reproduction in his mind of
this explosion killed him instantly after all. He was too
enfeebled to bear the shock. If he had passed from delirium into
quiet sleep--ah, well! he is dead, and that is all we can know
with certainty."
"Well," said Martine, with a deep breath, "I am glad he had every
chance that it was possible for us to give him.
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