up his gloves and hat and moving toward the door; “the other is a diet which you are to observe. As I told her just now, she must remain in bed and see no one but her immediate family; you must see that she hears and reads nothing exciting. That is all, I think.”
Indignation and alarm held riot in Ruth’s face and arrested the doctor’s departure.
“Dr. Kemp,” she said, “you force me to remind you of a promise you made me last night. Will you at least tell me what ails my mother that you use such strenuous measures?”
A flash of recollection came to the doctor’s eyes.
“Why, this is an unpardonable breach upon my part, Miss Levice; but I will tell you all the trouble. Your mother is suffering with a certain form of hysteria to a degree that would have prostrated her had we not come forward in time. As it is, by prostrating her ourselves for awhile, say a month or so, she will regain her equilibrium. You have heard of the food and rest cure?”
“Yes.”
“Well, that is what she will undergo mildly. Has she any duties that will suffer by her neglect or that will intrude upon her equanimity?”
“No necessary ones but those of the house. Under no circumstances can I conceive of her giving up their supervision.”
“Yet she must do so under the present state of affairs. Remember, her mind must be kept unoccupied, but time must be made to pass pleasantly for her. This is not an easy task, Miss Levice; but, according to my promise, I have left you to undertake it.”
“Thank you,” she responded quietly.
Kemp looked at her with a sense of calm satisfaction.
“Good-morning,” he said, holding out his hand with a smile.
As the door closed behind him, Ruth felt as if a burden had fallen from, instead of upon her. For the last twenty-four hours her apprehensions had been excessive. Now, though she knew positively that her mother’s condition needed instant and constant care, which she must herself assume, all sense of responsibility fell from her. The few quiet words of this
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