When he had said to himself,
tossing on his pillow, "What would she DO?" she had been planning
in such a way as answered his question. Each morning, when the day's
supplies arrived, it was as if he had received a message from her.
As the people in the cottages felt the power of his temperament and
depended upon him, so, also, did the patients in the ballroom ward. The
feeling had existed from the outset and increased daily. The doctors and
nurses told one another that his passing through the room was like the
administering of a tonic. Patients who were weak and making no effort,
were lifted upon the strong wave of his will and carried onward towards
the shore of greater courage and strength.
Young Doctor Thwaite met him when he came in one morning, and spoke in a
low voice:
"There is a young man behind the screen there who is very low," he said.
"He had an internal haemorrhage towards morning, and has lost his pluck.
He has a wife and three children. We have been doing our best for him
with hot-water bottles and stimulants, but he has not the courage
to help us. You have an extraordinary effect on them all, Lord Mount
Dunstan. When they are depressed, they always ask when you are coming
in, and this man--Patton, his name is--has asked for you several times.
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