THE SICK-A-BED LADY
of these latter times that the Young Doctor, watching her desperate struggle to focus her speech, forgot all about her twenty years and stooped down suddenly and kissed her square on her mouth.
"There," he laughed, "that will help you remember where your mouth is! " But it was astonishing after that how many times he had to remind her.
He could n't help loving her. No man could have helped loving her. She was so little and dear and gentle and—lost.
The Sick-A-Bed Lady herself did n't know who she was, but she would have perished with fright if she had realized that no one in the village, and not even the Young Doctor himself, could guess her identity.
The Young Doctor knew everything else in the world; why should n't he know who she was? He knew all about France being directly opposite the house; he had known it ever since he was a boy, and had been glad about it. He stopped her trying to count the green birds on the wall-paper because he "knew positively" that there were four hundred and seventeen whole birds, and nineteen half birds cut off by the wainscoting. He never laughed at her when she slid down the side of her bed by the village street window, and went to sleep with her curly head pillowed on the hard, white sill. He never laughed, because he understood perfectly that,
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