Anne's House of Dreams - L. M. Montgomery [83]
‘We do think of it. But Gilbert believes that a doctor should put the welfare of a patient’s mind and body before all other considerations.’
‘That’s just like a man. But I expected better things of you, Anne,’ said Miss Cornelia, more in sorrow than in wrath; then she proceeded to bombard Anne with precisely the same arguments with which the latter had attacked Gilbert; and Anne valiantly defended her husband with the weapons he had used for his own protection. Long was the fray, but Miss Cornelia made an end at last.
‘It’s an iniquitous shame,’ she declared, almost in tears. ‘That’s just what it is – an iniquitous shame. Poor, poor Leslie!’
‘Don’t you think Dick should be considered a little, too?’ pleaded Anne.
‘Dick! Dick Moore! He’s happy enough. He’s a better-behaved and more reputable member of society now than he ever was before. Why, he was a drunkard and perhaps worse. Are you going to set him loose again to roar and to devour?’
‘He may reform,’ said poor Anne, beset by foe without and traitor within.
‘Reform your grandmother!’ retorted Miss Cornelia. ‘Dick Moore got the injuries that left him as he is in a drunken brawl. He deserves his fate. It was sent on him for a punishment. I don’t believe the doctor has any business to tamper with the visitations of God.’
‘Nobody knows how Dick was hurt, Miss Cornelia. It may not have been in a drunken brawl at all. He may have been waylaid and robbed.’
‘Pigs may whistle, but they’ve poor mouths for it,’ said Miss Cornelia. ‘Well, the gist of what you tell me is that the thing is settled and there’s no use in talking. If that’s so I’ll hold my tongue. I don’t propose to wear my teeth out gnawing files. When a thing has to be I give in to it. But I like to make mighty sure first that it has to be. Now, I’ll devote my energies to comforting and sustaining Leslie. And after all,’ added Miss Cornelia, brightening up hopefully, ‘perhaps nothing can be done for Dick.’
31
THE TRUTH MAKES FREE
Leslie, having once made up her mind what to do, proceeded to do it with characteristic resolution and speed. House-cleaning must be finished with first, whatever issues of life and death might await beyond. The grey house up the brook was put into flawless order and cleanliness, with Miss Cornelia’s ready assistance. Miss Cornelia, having said her say to Anne, and later on to Gilbert and Captain Jim – sparing neither of them, let it be assured – never spoke of the matter to Leslie. She accepted the fact of Dick’s operation, referred to it when necessary in a business-like way, and ignored it when it was not. Leslie never attempted to discuss it. She was very cold and quiet during these beautiful spring days. She seldom visited Anne, and though she was invariably courteous and friendly, that very courtesy was an icy barrier between her and the people of the little house. The old jokes and laughter and chumminess of common things could not reach her over it. Anne refused to feel hurt. She knew that Leslie was in the grip of a hideous dread – a dread that wrapped her away from all little glimpses of happiness and hours of pleasure. When one great passion seizes possession of the soul all other feelings are crowded aside. Never in all her life had Leslie Moore shuddered away from the future with more intolerable terror. But she went forward as unswervingly in the path she had elected as the martyrs of old walked their chosen way, knowing the end of it to be the fiery agony of the stake.
The financial question was settled with greater ease than Anne had feared. Leslie borrowed the necessary money from Captain Jim, and, at her insistence, he took a mortgage on the little farm.
‘So that is one thing off the poor girl’s mind,’ Miss Cornelia told Anne, ‘and off mine too. Now, if Dick gets well enough to work again he’ll be able to earn enough to pay the interest on it; and if he doesn’t I know Captain Jim’ll manage some way that Leslie won’t have to. He said as much to me. “I’m