t in the closet door, and doing other
little things without number. She took no interest in Eugene's tense
attitude, or Myrtle's when she was there, but went in and out, talking,
jesting with other nurses, doing whatever she had to do quite
undisturbed.

"Isn't there anything that can be done to relieve her of this pain?"
Eugene asked wearily at one point. His own nerves were torn. "She can't
stand anything like that. She hasn't the strength."

She shook her head placidly. "There isn't a thing that anyone can do. We
can't give her an opiate. It stops the process. She just has to bear it.
All women do."

"All women," thought Eugene. Good God! Did all women go through a siege
like this every time a child was born? There were two billion people on
the earth now. Had there been two billion such scenes? Had he come this
way?--Angela? every child? What a terrible mistake she had made--so
unnecessary, so foolish. It was too late now, though, to speculate
concerning this. She was suffering. She was agonizing.

The house surgeon came back after a time to look at her condition, but
was not at all alarmed apparently. He nodded his head rather
reassuringly to Miss De Sale, who stood beside him. "I think she's doing
all right," he said.

"I think so, too," she replied.

Eugene wondered how they could say this. She was suffering horribly.

"I'm going into Ward A for an hour," said the doctor. "If any change
comes you can get me there."

"What change could come," asked Eugene of himself, "any worse than had
already appeared?" He was thinking of the drawings, though, he had seen
in the book--wondering if Angela would have to be assisted in some of
the grim, mechanical ways indicated there. They illustrated to him the
deadly possibilities of what might follow.

About midnight the expected change, which Eugene in agonized sympathy
was awaiting, arrived. Myrtle had not returned. She had been waiting to
hear from Eugene. Although Angela had been groaning before, pulling
herself tense at times, twisting in an aimless, unhappy fashion, now she
seemed to spring up and fall as though she had fainted. A shriek
accompanied the movement, and then another and another. He rushed to the
door, but the nurse was there to meet him.

"It's here," she said quietly. She went to a phone outside and called
for Dr. Willets. A second nurse from some other room came in and stood
beside her. In spite of the knotted cords on Angela's face, the swolle