The extremity of his wife's condition, and his almost insane appeals that he would hold her back from death, shocked still further the doctor's already quivering nerves.
The imminent peril in which Doctor Hillhouse found Mrs.Ridley determined him to call in another physician for consultation.

As twelve o'clock on that day had been fixed for the operation on Mrs.Carlton, it was absolutely necessary to get his mind as free as possible from all causes of anxiety or excitement, and the best thing in this extremity was to get his patient into the hands of a brother in the profession who could relieve him temporarily from _all_ responsibility, and watch the case with all needed care in its swiftly approaching crisis.

So he sent Doctor Angier, immediately on his return from his visit to Mrs.Ridley, with a request to Doctor Ainsworth, a physician of standing and experience, to meet him in consultation at ten o'clock.
Precisely at ten the physicians arrived at the house of Mr.Ridley, and were admitted by that gentleman, whose pale, haggard, frightened face told of his anguish and alarm.

They asked him no questions, and he preceded them in silence to the chamber of his sick wife.

It needed no second glance at their patient to tell the two doctors that she was in great extremity.