eerfully enough
upon the various rapid changes that were being made in her room. She
picked up the little pink blanket that had been hung upon a
white-enamelled clothes-horse, by the fire, and pressed it to her cheek.
But now and then she stopped walking, and put her hand out toward the
back of a chair as if she needed support, and then an expression crossed
her face that made Jim's soul sicken within him: an expression of fear
and wonderment and childish surprise. At nine o'clock Miss Toland came
in, a little pale, but very cheerful and reassuring.

"I'm afraid--my nerve--will give out, Aunt Sanna!" Julia said, beginning
her restless march again, after a hot quick kiss.

"Hear her!" said the nurse, with a laugh of bright scorn. "Don't talk
any nonsense like that, Mrs. Studdiford. Why, she's the coolest of us
all!"

"Oh, no--I'm not--oh, no--I'm not!" Julia moaned.

"Your doctor says you're doing splendidly, and that another two hours
ought to see everything well over!" Miss Toland said, trying to keep the
acute distress she felt out of her tone.

"I feel so--nauseated!" Julia complained. "So--uncertain!"

"Yes, I know," the nurse said soothingly, whisking out of the room. Miss
Toland followed her into the hall.

"She's in great pain, she won't have much of this?" asked the older
woman anxiously.

"She's not suffering much," the nurse said brightly, after a cautious
glance at Julia's closed door. "This isn't much--yet. She's a little
scared, that's all!"

Hating the nurse from the depth of her heart, Miss Toland went
downstairs to see the doctor. Jim was sitting with a newspaper on the
porch, trying to smoke. He jumped up nervously.

"Where's Doctor Lippincott?" demanded Miss Toland. "He ran in to San
Rafael. Back directly."

"Ran in to San Rafael? And you let him! Why, I don't see how he dared,
Jim!"

"Oh, I guess he knows his business, Aunt Sanna!" Jim said miserably. "Do
you suppose I can go up for a while?"

"Yes, go," said Miss Toland. "I think she wants you, God bless her!"

But Julia wanted nobody and nothing. Jim's presence, his concerned voice
and sympathetic eyes, only vaguely added to her distress. She was
frightened now, terrified at the recurring paroxysms of pain; she
recoiled from the breezy matter-of-factness of the doctor and the nurse;
the elaborate preparations for the crisis offended every delicate
instinct of her nature. She felt that the room was hot, and complained
of the fire;