But when she had half helped, half forced Mrs.Hurd back to bed again, and had returned to him, his eyelids had fallen, he seemed asleep.

The fast, whistling breath was much the same as it had been for days; she reassured herself.
And at last the wife slept too.

The narcotic seized her.

The aching limbs relaxed, and all was still.

Marcella, stooping over her, kissed the shoulder of her dress for very joy, so grateful to every sense of the watcher was the sudden lull in the long activity of anguish.
Then she sat down in the rocking chair by the fire, yielding herself with a momentary relief to the night and the silence.