he world was a great void, filled with the
strangled breathing of the baby. Since the first swift descent of danger
she had worked mechanically, under the doctor's orders, without sleep,
with no attention to the food which they forced her to swallow. Her
muscles obeyed the orders of her brain, but her subconscious mind
spilled over into her consciousness every minute of the time, and a
dreary monologue repeated itself interminably:

"Why did I bring him here? Why did I risk his life this way? For my own
selfish purposes, and now God will punish me. He will take him away. I
shall have killed him--little Jerry." Over and over it ran, the same
words, the same aching accusation. With a reversion to the old, avenging
God of her childhood, she foresaw quick doom for sin.

Jerry Jr. had never been ill before and Jane was unprepared for the
suddenness of the seizure. A strange doctor had to be summoned, Anna's
terror quieted, a trained nurse sent for. Things had to be done quickly
for the need was immediate. The baby had evidently taken cold--it had
gone into membranous croup before they realized that he was really ill.

Miss Garnett and the doctor were kindness itself, but it seemed to Jane
that she was as alone with Nemesis, as if she were lost in the desert.
The first day, and part of the second, the doctor insisted there was no
need of alarm, but the afternoon of the second day the breathing grew
more and more difficult. Then Jane wired for Jerry.

As she waited for him, she tried to think how he would feel toward her,
if his son were sacrificed. She thought of the night before they came
away--how he had bathed him and said his good-bye to him. He was just
beginning to take an interest in him, to be proud of him. And now! She
fought down the desire to break into hysterical weeping. She must spare
him that, at least.

When, finally, he came into the room, her tragic face drew him to her
swiftly. He took her cold hands for a second, with a low word of
greeting. Then he went to the baby's bed and bent over him.

"Poor little chap!" he exclaimed, as he looked at the fevered, panting
atom of humanity. He asked the nurse quick questions. Jane sat still as
a graven image.

"I asked Doctor Grant to come on the next train, Jane. I thought we'd
better have him, because he knows Jerry's constitution best."

"Oh, Jerry!" she said, out of her agony.

He went to her and laid his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't be discouraged, Ja