Davis to the man, "see how she knows
how to manage him! Why, I could not do it better myself!"
She had gone up to the wild, raging figure, and with soft
authority had made him lie down: and then, placing a basin of
cold water by the bedside, she had dipped in it her pretty hands,
and was laying their cool dampness on his hot brow, speaking in a
low soothing voice all the time, in a way that acted like a charm
in hushing his mad talk.
"But I will stay," said the doctor, after he had examined his
patient; "as much on her account as his, and partly to quieten
the fears of this poor, faithful fellow."
CHAPTER XXXV
OUT OF DARKNESS INTO LIGHT
The third night after this was to be the crisis--the
turning-point between Life and Death. Mr. Davis came again to
pass it by the bedside of the sufferer. Ruth was there, constant
and still, intent upon watching the symptoms, and acting
according to them, in obedience to Mr. Davis's directions. She
had never left the room. Every sense had been strained in
watching--every power of thought or judgment had been kept on the
full stretch. Now that Mr. Davis came and took her place, and
that the room was quiet for the night, she became oppressed with
heaviness, which yet did not tend to sleep. She could not
remember the present time, or where she was. All times of her
earliest youth--the days of her childhood--were in her memory
with a minuteness and fulness of detail which was miserable; for
all along she felt that she had no real grasp on the scenes that
were passing through her mind--that, somehow, they were long gone
by, and gone by for ever--and yet she could not remember who she
was now, nor where she was, and whether she had now any interests
in life to take the place of those which she was conscious had
passed away, although their remembrance filled her mind with
painful acuteness.
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