He did not talk with her as if she were an
outside sinner worse than himself. He found a bruised and languishing
soul, and bound up its wounds. A blessed office,--one which is confined
to no sect or creed, but which good men in all times, under various names
and with varying ministries, to suit the need of each age, of each race,
of each individual soul, have come forward to discharge for their
suffering fellow-creatures.
After this there was little change in Elsie, except that her heart beat
more feebly every day,--so that the old Doctor himself, with all his
experience, could see nothing to account for the gradual failing of the
powers of life, and yet could find no remedy which seemed to arrest its
progress in the smallest degree.
"Be very careful," he said, "that she is not allowed to make any muscular
exertion. Any such effort, when a person is so enfeebled, may stop the
heart in a moment; and if it stops, it will never move again."
Helen enforced this rule with the greatest care. Elsie was hardly
allowed to move her hand or to speak above a whisper.
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