The banker shook his head. “I’m not thinking of that, Mr. Crozier. God knows, I’m not!”
Crozier caught sight of Mrs. Tynan. “It’s hard on you to have me brought here,” he murmured as she took his hand.
“Not so hard as if they hadn’t,” she replied. “That’s what a home’s for--not just a place for eating and drinking and sleeping.”
“It wasn’t part of the bargain,” he said weakly.
“Here’s Kitty,” said the maker of mineral waters, as there was the swish of a skirt at the door.
“Who are you calling ‘Kitty’?” asked the girl indignantly, as they motioned her back from the bedside. “There’s too many people here,” she added abruptly to her mother. “We can take care of him”--she nodded towards the bed. “We don’t want any help except--except from John Sibley, if he will stay, and you too,” she added to the banker.
She had not yet looked at the figure on the bed. She felt she could not do so while all these people were in the room. She needed time to adjust herself to the situation. It was as though she was the authority in the household and took control even of her mother. Mrs. Tynan understood. She had a great belief in her daughter and admired her cleverness, and she was always ready to be ruled by her; it was like being “bossed” by the man she had lost.
“Yes, you’d all better go,” Mrs. Tynan said. “He wants all the air he can get, and I can’t make things ready with all of you in the room. Go outdoors for a while, anyway. It’s summer and you’ll not take cold! The Young Doctor has work to do, and my girl and I and these two will help him plenty.” She motioned towards the banker and the gambling farmer.
In a moment the room was cleared of all save the four and Crozier, who knew that upon the coming operation depended his life. He had been conscious when the Young Doctor said this was so, and he was thinking, as he lay there watching these two women out of his nearly closed eyes, that he would like to be back in Ireland at Castlegarry with the girl he had married and had left without a good-bye near five years gone. If he had to die he would like to die at home; and that could not be.
Kitty had the courage to turn towards him now. As she caught sight of his face for the first time--she had so far kept her head turned away--she became very pale. Then, suddenly, she gathered herself together. Going over to the bed, she took the limp hand lying on the coverlet.