no other resource than to call her
in as a fellow-practitioner, and I knew she would make a first-rate
nurse, for which Suzanne Tardif was unfitted by her deafness.

CHAPTER THE FOURTH.

A RIVAL PRACTITIONER.

Mother Renouf arrived from the other end of the island in an incredibly
short time, borne along by Tardif as if he were a whirlwind and she a
leaf caught in its current. She was a short, squat old woman, with a
skin tanned like leather, and kindly little blue eyes, twinkling with
delight and pride. Yes, there they are, photographed somewhere in my
brain, the wrinkled, yellow, withered faces of the two old women, their
watery eyes and toothless mouths, with figures as shapeless as the
bowlders on the beach, watching beside the bed where lay the white but
tenderly beautiful face of the young girl, with her curls of glossy hair
tossed about the pillow, and her long, tremulous eyelashes making a
shadow on her rounded cheek.

Mother Renouf gave me a hearty tap on the shoulder, and chuckled as
merrily as the shortness of her breath after her rapid course would
permit. The few English phrases she knew fell far short of expressing
her triumph and exultation; but I was resolved to confer with her
affably. My patient's case was too serious for me to stand upon my
dignity.

"Mother," I said, "have you any simples to send this poor girl to sleep?
Tardif told me you had taken her sprained ankle under your charge. I
find I have nothing with me to induce sleep, and you can help us if any
one can."

"Leave her to me, my dear little doctor," she answered, a laugh gurgling
in her thick throat; "leave her to me. You have done your part with the
bones. I have no touch at all for broken limbs, though my father, good
man, could handle them with any doctor in all the islands. But I'll send
her to sleep for you, never fear."

"You will stay with us all night?" I said, coaxingly. "Suzanne is deaf,
and ears are of use in a sick-room, you know. I intended to go to
Gavey's, but I shall throw myself down here on the fern bed, and you can
call me at any moment, if there is need."

"There will be no need," she replied, in a tone of confidence. "My
little mam'zelle will be sound asleep in ten minutes after she has taken
my draught."

I went into the room with her to have a look at our patient. She had not
stirred yet, but was precisely in the position in which I placed her
after the operation was ended. There was something p