Maris Read Online Free

this time stood in the doorway silently, answered the appeal in his friend's eyes and came over to the couch. He stooped over, listening, and laid his hand on the wrist.
    Merrick looked at him with fear in his eyes.
    "Is she-- gone ?" he murmured hoarsely.
    "No, I think not," said the other. "Let's have that ammonia. Dip that towel in some water and wet her face."
    Maris, with white face and frightened eyes, brought the bottle and then got a wet cloth and began to bathe her mother's face. She knelt down beside the couch and found she was trembling so that her knees would hardly support her.
    The telephone had ceased, and presently Gwyneth came to her brother.
    "It's Tilford," she said. "He said he's got to speak to Maris."
    "Well, he can't speak to Maris now. I'll tell His Highness where to get off!" And Merrick strode out in the hall to the telephone.
    If Maris heard at all, she was too frightened to take it in. She knelt there tenderly bathing her mother's still white face and trying to stop the trembling in her limbs, trying to keep her lips from quivering.
    She was aware that somebody else, an outsider, was kneeling beside her listening for a heartbeat, feeling for a slender, evasive pulse in her mother's frail wrist, but she did not turn her head to look at him. It didn't occur to her to wonder who he was or if she knew him. She was intent upon her mother's face. Was it too late? Was she gone from them forever? Would she never be able to tell her how much she loved her? How sorry and ashamed she was that she had let her do so many hard things alone, while she had gone on her blithe way having a good time and never noticing how hard she was making it for her precious mother.
    She thought of many things while she knelt there so quietly bathing that white face, helping the man beside her to lift the head of the sick woman and hold a glass of water to her lips. She was examining herself, seeing herself as she had never seen herself before in all her happy, carefree days.
    Maris did not hear Merrick at the telephone, though he was shouting angrily:
    "Well, you can't see my sister. She's busy. Our mother has been taken very ill. We aren't sure but she's dying. Get off this wire. I want to telephone for the doctor. Get off quick, I say!" Bang! Merrick hung up.
    Then in a second he lifted the receiver again.
    "Merrick, you must be crazy to speak to me this way. Do you realize what you are doing?" babbled forth the indignant voice of his future brother-in-law. "Tell Maris to come here at once. I must speak to her right away. I won't keep her but a moment, but I must tell her something right away!"
    "Will you get out of my way?" yelled Merrick. "If my mother dies for want of a doctor, we'll have you arrested for murder. Get off, I tell you! Thunder , have I got to go next door to get a message through to the doctor? Operator! Operator!"
    "But, Merrick, listen to me--"
    "Oh, go to thunder !" roared Merrick. "No, I won't listen to you. I'll go and use the neighbors' phone, and you can keep right on talking to yourself--" And Merrick banged the receiver down on the table and left Tilford protesting in dignified and indignant tones. But Merrick had gone next door to telephone, and presently Tilford took it in that nobody was listening to him. A vast silence seemed to have dropped down upon the wire, and nobody was getting the benefit of his high-sounding words. Tilford was a handsome man and usually depended a good deal on the effect of his personal appearance when he was talking, but he found himself at a great disadvantage just now, for his physical beauty had no effect whatever on the telephone wires. There didn't seem to be even an operator around to hear him. So at last he hung up in disgust. Somebody should suffer for this! Merrick, of course, was the greatest offender, but if Merrick were not available, his sister should certainly take it. Perhaps it would be as well for him to go right around to the house now and see Maris